Into The Spotlight
by One Lucky Unicorn
Summary: Four friends living in medieval England embark upon the adventure of a lifetime to save their master Prince Tristan from a malicious, power-hungry foe who traps him in the present. [TO BE REVISED]
1. Chapter 1

**Tao's Ferreteers in –**

"**Into the Spotlight"**

A Road Rovers spin-off written by 3StarvingArtist.

**Author's Notes: **I am pleased as punch to present my first ever completed work of "Road Rovers" fan fiction. It took roughly three to four years to finally get this story (plus the Tao's Ferreteers series as a whole) just right in my eyes. The Road Rovers themselves don't appear in this particular story, I'm afraid, though they will in the third story in the Ferreteer series. If you're confused by the French and Italian words in the story and would like to know what they mean, then there's a reference guide at the bottom. Also, if you're curious about that number one there above the main body of the story, it just represents this particular story's place in the series' timeline.

I'd put "Spotlight's" rating at a strong PG-13 for some violence (namely two battle scenes near the end), some rough language, and Adagio's and Palmer's rather… raunchy senses of humor (but that incident doesn't occur until later either), but overall, it's nothing like an animal-version of "Pulp Fiction". Last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank my beta readers Eric Sharp and John "Catman" Butler for taking the time to read and properly critique my story.

Finally, see if you can spot some of the references in here that I make to another cartoon and a comic book series!

**Legend:**

Word indicates the place and date.

_Word_ indicates character thoughts, including telepathy, a heavily stressed word, or a foreign word or speech, like "_Bonjour_."

**Word** indicates noises or actions such as sighing.

**1 **

**Chapter One**

** Wicklow, England, the mid-1300's **

Our tale begins in a bygone age, long before the Road Rovers and their archenemy General Parvo were born or even existed. It begins in England's medieval era, when knights still roamed the land and King Allan ruled the kingdom of Wicklow with a fair and steady hand. But now, a literal cloud of darkness hung heavy over the kingdom, and the king and his family were at the heart of it.

In the safety of his castle stronghold, King Allan stroked his beloved queen Helena's slender hand, staring numbly at his comatose wife while the royal physician performed a checkup on her. Around them, a few of the king's closest courtiers and servants stood in somber silence, their moods matching the gray sky and wet, ominous weather outside, which was dragging into its sixth day now.

The doctor looked up at King Allan, sighing. "To be honest, sire, I haven't the foggiest what's happened to the queen. It looks like a possible case of poisoning."

"Poisoning?" gasped King Allan. "Doctor, those are very serious charges indeed."

Standing, the doctor fastened the rucksack in which he carried his medicines and other supplies as he prepared to take his leave. "That's what it looks like to me. There are no sign of violence to her body. Er, one of the cooks could've accidentally gotten something poisonous on their hands, and then handled your food..."

"Then how come we all are not ill?" asked a courtier.

The doctor sighed, his wrinkled face creased in confusion. "As I said, this is a most puzzling malady. I've never seen anything like it before."

If it weren't for the doctor's prognoses, people who first saw Queen Helena would have thought she was merely sleeping. The queen's long dark brown hair framed her beautiful face, and, in combination with her mystery illness, made her skin stand out and appear even more pallid then it already was. Her hands were folded on her chest, which was slowly rising and falling with the motions of her shallow breathing. As he stared down at his wife, for a moment the king almost expected her to wake up and tease him for worrying about her. If only.

After the doctor had left, there was a knock at the door. A dumpy, short woman entered after the king invited her in. The governess of the king and queen's two children, Prince Tristan and the princess Morrigan, she respectfully bowed to the king, and began speaking.

"Your majesty, I've just put your son to bed. The lad is doing quite nicely; he is really quite a brave young man. He'll make a fine ruler some day. I also peeked in on Morrigan. She's apparently gone to bed."

King Allan smiled briefly at the mention of his children. "Thank you, Mariel." He turned back to look at Queen Helena, his brown eyes becoming moist with tears again. He loved the both of his children dearly, and had informed them about their mother's recent take of bad health. As if he didn't already have enough on his plate, there was also the matter of his daughter. In the last few months, Morrigan's behavior had become erratic and bizarre, and whisperings had begun around Castle Wicklow and the village saying that she had taken up witchcraft. Everyday he prayed to the Lord, asking that she be returned to her old self and to keep her soul safe from the forces of evil.

At the moment, sleep was the last thing on Prince Tristan's mind. Instead, escaping his pursuers was the seven-year old's present concern. Many people thought that the prince strongly resembled his father, right down to his dirty blonde hair (presently, Tristan's own was quite unkempt-looking, but then again, that was something to be expected of his young highness), but he had his mother's light blue eyes.

Hiding behind a tapestry, Tristan watched as the shadows in his bedchamber detached themselves from the dark corners and advanced on him. Each of the four living shadows had eyes that glowed a different color -- golden-yellow, scarlet, green-gold, and pinkish-green.

Tristan sprinted through the menacing phantoms' midst – he was moving too fast for them to grab him – and jumped onto his bed. Remembering that he was supposed to be asleep right now, he made a mental note to take care to be more quiet and careful in his movements. Tristan giggled at the thought of tricking his governess like this, but remembered the searching shades and covered his face with one of his pillows.

The shadows, meanwhile, silently swarmed towards the bed. Tristan remained still and listened carefully for them, knowing that they could appear anytime from out of nowhere. Hearing nothing, he finally sat up, and taking the pillow from over his head, looked for his hunters. Had they hidden themselves somewhere again?

"SNEAK ATTACK!"

Tristan suppressed a squeal of delight as four small, slinky, furry bodies suddenly pounced on him from all sides. The shadows playfully nibbled at the boy and licked him, making noises that resembled odd clucking/chortling sounds. The four shadows were, in actuality, domestic ferrets. The four weasel-like animals were the personal pets of Prince Tristan, and even though Tristan had his human friends around the castle, his ferrets would always hold a special place in his heart.

"Listen up gang! Sheila, nibble his fingers, Palmer and 'Dage, tickle him! I'll search his pockets!" A male ferret sitting in Tristan's lap by the name of Dante ordered his other three comrades (in a language that only they and other animals could understand, mind you).

The biggest of the quartet, Dante also had the distinction of being the oldest, about twenty-four in human years, and the one who had lived at Castle Wicklow the longest. He was husky and stout in build, as opposed to the wiry, lithe form of many ferrets. He was a sable ferret, which meant that his fur was warm brown with a black "bandit" mask over his eyes; he also had black-furred limbs and a matching tail-tip, and white fur covering his muzzle that extended onto his cheeks, throat, and underside. Dante searched the boy's tunic pockets and retrieved his intended prize – a cookie. Grinning triumphantly, he sat on his haunches and happily began taking big bites out of the treat.

After removing his ferrets from his person, Tristan hopped off the bed, beaming at his pets. "Tell you guys what – close your eyes and count, and I'll go hide!"

The ferrets all complied as the six-year old ran around the room, giggling. Finally choosing his hiding spot behind another wall tapestry, nothing but Tristan's stockinged feet stuck out from behind it. The youngest ferret, Palmer, laughed aloud at this. A half-grown hob (male ferret), his coloration was what was referred to as dark silver-mitt – mostly mouse-gray fur with white "socks" or "mitts" on all four paws, as well as a white head, throat, and underbelly. Palmer's otherwise white-furred face had a gray mask, and his eyes were a dark burgundy color.

"Oh yeah, he isn't _too_ obvious!"

Sheila, the jill, or female ferret sitting next to him, nudged her friend with paw. "Just play along, Pal. Don't wanna deflate this child's ego." she said with a throaty chuckle.

Adagio, the final ferret to round out the quartet, nodded in agreement with Sheila. A handsome hob originally by way of France, Adagio had red coloration – his fur was largely reddish-brown, with white highlights on his face and underside, and he had a darker reddish-brown facial mask and tail-tip. He was watching Sheila adoringly, admiring her snowy-white pelt, the way she moved, her graceful, supple physique, and her eyes, which were the color of the sky on a summer day.

Ever intent on pleasing his love interest, he clambered down from his spot on the bed next to Palmer and to the floor. Casting a glance at his compatriots to make sure they were all watching him, Adagio began to walk slowly around the room, pretending to thoroughly sniff for the prince's scent and padding right past Tristan's hiding spot as though completely oblivious to his presence, much to Tristan's amusement.

"See? Like this, _mon ami_. Tristan loves it!" Adagio instructed Palmer, whom he had taken under his wing as his protégé when Palmer was but a wee kit. "_Not to mention Sheila as well_." Adagio thought, beaming with glee.

The others laughed as Tristan, obviously pleased with himself, peered out from behind the tapestry and crept away in the opposite direction of the French ferret, who was still pretending to look for Tristan in all the wrong places. Turning around, he then stole up behind Adagio and scooped him up in a hug. While parading his captive around, Tristan and his four friends were unaware of an intruder in their midst.

A tiny but deadly looking spider perched on one of the intricate iron curlicue designs of the window frame, watching the playing quintet. The spider crawled from her perch to the windowsill and down to the floor. Creeping behind a toy chest, a very brief and very small flash of deep gold light enveloped the spider, which suddenly became a large black rat with icy green eyes. The stealthy rodent kept to the edges of the room, well away from the gamboling friends and moving closer to a third wall tapestry. The rat's attention was actually focused on a secret door that was hidden behind the tapestry. When Castle Wicklow had been built, the door had been added in case there was ever dissension either outside or within the castle walls and the castle's occupants needed to make a hasty getaway.

Meanwhile, Dante doted on Tristan. "He's such a smart human."

"Yep. We've trained him well." Sheila agreed, languidly stretching. "Too bad the same can't be said for his sister."

In the past, Morrigan had generally tolerated the ferrets quite well and had even played with them on occasion. But lately she had ignored them, treating them like annoyances, even chasing the explorative animals away whenever they ventured too close to her personal bedchamber.

Palmer glanced up at his two friends from playing with a spinning top, a scowl on his face. "Ugh, Morrigan? She makes my fur stand on end whenever she looks at me." He shivered.

"The lightning outside makes you do that." Dante said, a mirthful twinkle in his light brown eyes. The big ferret then suddenly grabbed Palmer in a playful wrestling move. "Hey, I'm only kiddin', _paisano. _You're the bravest lil' ferret I know."

"_Ah-hem_."

As the two hobs roughhoused, Dante let Palmer go as he glanced at Sheila over his shoulder. "Sheila? Why, you're just a jill." He slyly replied, still in "play" mode. Sheila's response was to leap straight at his head, but Dante had already sidestepped and bounded away in anticipation of his friend's attack. A game of tag ensued, with Tristan and Adagio joining in.

The sudden sound of a door opening caused all four ferrets to snap their heads up in the direction of the sound. Two strangers had just entered the Prince's room from the secret door.


	2. Chapter 2

-1 **Chapter 2**

Confused and surprised, Tristan and his ferrets stared at the intruders. Usually, no one came into the prince's room except for Mariel, his guard Wallace, or the king and queen. The strangers, a giant of a man and a shorter dark-haired one, walked around the room, studying the window, walls, and floors and commenting on them between themselves. The pair occasionally looked over in Tristan's direction and smiled disarmingly. Meanwhile, the rat had retreated to a dim corner to survey things.

Palmer, who was usually one of the human-friendlier ferrets next to Dante when it came to strangers, cocked his head in curiosity as he carefully watched the two. "Who are they?"

Now over his initial shock, Adagio merely gave a careless sniff in their direction. "They are probably just some workers here to repair something, _mon amies_. Who cares?" He said, scampering up onto Tristan's shoulder.

Sniffing for himself, Palmer snorted, his tail starting to bottlebrush – the fur on it sticking straight out in all directions. "I don't think they're any workers of any kind. They scent... wrong."

Wondering what Palmer was getting at, Sheila looked over at him. "Huh?"

"What I mean is they don't smell right. They almost seem... like they're up to something. And something not good." Palmer growled in frustration. "Wish I knew what."

"I've gotta agree with Palmer, _paisanos_," Dante said, coming over to stand with Palmer and Sheila. "I've seen them around the castle grounds one or twice before working on stuff, but I don't recall Mariel or anybody else mentioning that someone was supposed to come in here to fix something today."

Adagio, still lavishly lounging over Tristan's shoulder, contemptuously waved his tail in a "dismissed" gesture in Dante's direction. "You are too paranoid, and Palmer is just smelling things again. Come off it, will you? Palmer, _moi fils_, why don't you have a cookie with _moi_?"

The shorter man walked up to Tristan, while his partner now appeared to be checking out the window. "Hello, good Prince."

"Um... hi." Tristan said shyly. "Who are you?"

The man continued to smile. "Well, I'm Slade, and my friend over there is Gyles." The tall muscular man turned to wave. "You like fairs?"

"Yeah!" Tristan replied enthusiastically.

"Well, your daddy wanted us to take you to one in Danbury. Miss Mariel can't. She's busy with her relations. So, you want to come or not?"

By this time, Tristan was so eager to go that whatever suspicions he initially had concerning the men had completely disappeared. Adagio began climbing down the back of Tristan's tunic and finally hopped off as Slade took the boy by the hand and began heading towards the secret door, with Gyles following.

"_Well, that's a definite 'no way'_." Dante thought. "Is it just me," he urgently said to his friends, "Or are these two trying to run off with Tristan?"

"You're not the only one. I can spot a lie from a mile away, and this Slade's doing it through his teeth. 'The fair?'Please." scoffed Sheila.

"Um, well, what are we going to do?" Adagio asked, a note of fear rising in his voice. Although he would fight if he had to or if something had really set him off, hoping to win against such colossal opponents just didn't seem very likely to the hob.

"What else?" said Dante matter-of-factly. "Protect Tristan."

The four immediately raced over, placing themselves squarely between the door and Tristan and his would-be abductors. "Release our boy and leave, or else." Dante sternly warned the pair.

Of course, Slade and Gyles, not understanding what the ferret had just said, tried to open the door anyway. Sheila instantly lunged for Gyles' ankle, and, revealing sharp and surprisingly sizeable teeth for an animal of her small stature, bit it hard.

"Augh! Bloody little rat bit me!" roared Gyles, attempting to shake her off. Like a determined terrier, the jill just bit down harder. Hearing Sheila being referred to as a "bloody little rat" and witnessing his owner about to be abducted ignited both Adagio's chivalrous and protective instincts, and the French ferret went for Gyles' other leg. As Gyles began to stumble around, trying to get the two ferrets off him, Dante and Palmer attacked Slade. The rat watched the pitched battle silently, a displeased expression on her face.

"Shut up, you moron!" Slade snarled through clenched teeth as he tried to shake Palmer off; the young ferret currently had his teeth locked onto Slade's calf. "Do you want to wake the whole bleedin' castle? Bring the – ouch – guards?"

"I can't help it! These stinkin' things are tryin' to tear me to shreds!" Gyles replied in obvious pain.

With the aid of his sharp claws, Dante managed to scramble onto Slade's back. "You know, you are incredibly slow, _signore_," he said derisively. "Shall I help you along?" With that, he began viciously clawing at Slade's backside.

Meanwhile, an alarmed Tristan managed to backpedal away from the distracted men in rapid order. He watched in horror as Gyles, who had finally gotten a good grip on Sheila, angrily flung her right into the wall. Immediately, the fight went out of Adagio, Palmer, and Dante. Seeing their friend injured, they rushed to her side. The jill lay on the floor motionless, her eyes closed. One paw twitched feebly for a minute, then stopped moving altogether.

Frantically, Adagio nudged her with his muzzle, screaming, "_Cherie_! Are you alright?"

"Don't move her like that!" Palmer had to yell in the hysterical red-furred ferret's ear. "She may have something broken!"

Sheila groaned softly in response. Dante, giving her a hasty check over, murmured softly, "Don't move now, _sorella_. You're a bit battered…"

Casually, Slade and Gyles walked closer to the ferrets, Gyles nursing a lacerated left hand. "Stupid feckin' little rodent. She brought it on herself... ouch!"

A very livid Tristan had just stomped down hard on Gyles' bitten foot. "Ugly oaf! I'll kill you for hurting Sheila!"

Gyles hopped around on one leg, swearing in pain as he grabbed the injured foot. Sighing, Slade grabbed the struggling Tristan and covered the child's mouth with his free hand. "Tsk, tsk, boy, such ugly words fer someone of such noble birth! Look here, Gyles – since the little white fleabag tore you up the worst, I'll let you have the honor of smashing her head in."

Palmer, Dante, Adagio, and Tristan stared up at Slade, their eyes wide with horror. Gyles stopped jumping around, and a sadistic grin lit up his face. He walked up to Sheila, preparing to kick the jill's limp body.

"You are not fit to touch her, you _vermine_!" Adagio hissed in hatred, his fur bristling as he protectively leapt in front of Sheila and prepared to attack again.

"We have to protect Sheila!" shouted Dante.

Palmer briefly tore his eyes away from Gyles to look over at Dante. "But how?" he asked, feeling about as completely helpless as Sheila was at this point.

"With our bodies if we have to!" replied the elder ferret. He stood as part of an outward circle that a determined Adagio and Palmer had hurriedly formed around Sheila, all preparing to defend their companion with their lives.

"_Aww_." Slade said sarcastically as he watched the three animals. "The little furballs want to save their precious wee friend. Kill them too!"

A sudden explosion of dark gold-colored light and smoke from one corner of the bedchamber caught everyone's attention, and they turned to see what the source of it was. The rat had had enough. In its place now stood what was apparently another human, clothed in a hooded robe of darkest midnight-black. Any discerning features the newcomer might have had were marred by the shadows formed by the robe's hood, save for a few locks of obsidian-black hair and a pair of green eyes. A goshawk with deep gray, black, and lighter gray plumage perched on the black leather gauntlet the mystery person wore on their left hand, the goshawk's intense yellow eyes glaring at the odious duo. Gyles and Slade's tough guy personas melted away completely, and in their places were two very tense and sweaty henchmen.

"Er, why, L-L-Lady Morri -- "

"Enough." Lady Morrigan said, silencing them with a single gesture of her ungloved hand, her voice as hard and cold as arctic sea ice. Suddenly, her tone unexpectedly changed, becoming almost sweet-sounding. "Mr. Gyles... Mr. Slade... did I not save the two of you from a hanging sentence in Ambleton? Then hired you to do my bidding?"

"Um, well... but of course..."

"THEN stop playing with these insignificant little animals and get back to work! Bring the child over here and place him in this sack!" she snarled, becoming harsh again. The goshawk cawed as though to accentuate her threat.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Palmer and Adagio very gently picked up the barely-conscious Sheila and placed her across Dante's broad back. The four ferrets then quickly and quietly took refuge underneath Tristan's bed. As they watched in grim silence, a rag apparently laced with some sort of sleeping herb was placed over Tristan's nose, quieting his struggles as Gyles placed him in the burlap sack.

"Now, luckily for us the castle walls are so thick I don't anyone heard the commotion," the female whispered conspiratorially. "But let's not take any chances, shall we, gentlemen?"

Gyles and Slade nodded eagerly. "Right then! We're ready, mi'lady!"

"But, um... how do we get 'im outta here?" asked Gyles.

"Like this." she said, pointing theatrically towards the wall. A dark gold-colored beam of light – her magick – erupted from her index fingertip and struck the wall. A large black hole, big enough for a grown man to fit through, suddenly opened up on the dull gray stone. The sorceress turned back to Gyles. "Now, toss the sack into the gateway."

"Er... what is that?"

The sorceress sighed and shook her head almost sympathetically. "It's a time-gateway into the future. Tossing the sack in will send Tristan to the future."

"The future, miss?"

Strongly resisting the urge to turn Gyles into a pig, the witch replied, "Yes, Gyles. The future. The Queens borough in New York City in present day-America, to be exact. There, the boy won't be able to interfere with my plans."

"Amer –?"

"Just throw the sack in, stupid!"

Hurriedly, Gyles complied, flinging the sack into the portal's inky maw, into the very reaches of Time and Space. The bag seemed to hang in mid-air for the briefest second, and then was swallowed up by the darkness as it fell.

With that business done, the woman and her goshawk stared hard at the two men, who shuffled around nervously under their icy glares. "I need you two to guard Tristan."

Gyles' beady eyes practically fell out of his head. "_Guard_ _'im_?! You mean we got to follow 'im? Into _that_?" he exclaimed in disbelief.

Slade elbowed his companion hard in the ribs to shut him up, then turned to the witch with an exaggerated bow. "Look here, mi'lady – I, on the other hand, am not intimidated by a little magick and such. So we just have to hop right in there?"

"Basically, yes, and in a few minutes you'll walk right out into a new era and land. A man named Tao Shang will greet you when you arrive. He is to be your guide around the city. You'll board with him and guard the boy." She purred like a well-fed cat. "Rest assured, if you both successfully complete this task you will be rewarded _handsomely_, gentlemen." Handing a slip of parchment paper and a small bag to Slade, she continued. "Here's some down payment and a list with my instructions."

Interested in their payment, Gyles reached into the bag and pulled out a bound wad of two hundred American dollar bills. Staring at them in disappointment mingled with bewilderment, the pair then regarded their boss.

"Er… beggin' your pardon, mi'lady, but this is just paper!" said Gyles, sounding even more confused then usual.

Lady Morrigan folded her arms. "Oh, it's as good as gold where you two are headed off to, trust me."

"If you say so, good Lady. I give you my honest word that we will watch the prince until the Horses of the Apocalypse themselves is coming down the streets!" Slade bravely proclaimed, grabbing Gyles by his tunic collar and dragging him over to the time-gateway. Gyles, however, still looked hesitant as he peered into the portal.

"It's... um... quite dark in here, missus..."

"It's just like floating once you're inside, you ninny!" she said in exasperation. "Just watch your step as you're climbing in, then jump."

The sorceress's words of encouragement apparently didn't make Gyles feel any bolder, so she raised her left hand and set her goshawk into the air. The raptor screeched and flew towards Gyles', giving him a good hard peck on his posterior. With a cry of dismay, the huge man jumped and fell into the time-gateway, brawny arms flailing helplessly. Lady Morrigan stared at Slade as the goshawk alighted on her shoulder, a small piece of brown material dangling from her beak.

"Next."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

**Queens' borough, New York City, New York, the United States, in the present **

The elderly man waited patiently, leaning up against the guardrail separating his apartment building from the sidewalk and the street. It was still light outside, even though it was autumn and five in the afternoon. The cool breeze and the trees' leaves throwing off their summer green for rich golds, reds, browns, oranges, and yellows was invigorating. Checking his wristwatch, he thought to himself. The woman who had replied to his room and board ad that he had placed in the newspaper had told him to wait here for his guests to arrive, and to expect a child, a young boy, to be with them.

Some neighborhood kids, spying the man, walked over to say hi, happy to run into their teacher. He owned a martial arts school in the neighborhood called the Academy Of The Red Tiger that they patronized.

"Hey Mr. Shang! What's up?" one boy asked. Mr. Shang, or Tao, as he preferred to be called, grinned back.

"Just waiting for my new houseguests to show up." The short Chinese-American man replied in his light Chinese accent. He was mostly balding, except for the remaining salt-and-pepper hair on his temples that was pulled back into a short ponytail.

"So you're getting some new boarders? Guess they haven't heard ," joked one girl, a freckle-faced redhead.

Laughing, Tao said, "It's nice to see you again too, Alex. These two gentlemen are out-of-towners, British. They're supposed to have a seven-year old with them."

Unbeknownst to the group, a tear had just opened in the air from at least six feet off the ground and spat out the sack holding Prince Tristan. The sack plummeted towards the street.

At the same time, a Mrs. Martins was on her way home from work and driving down the street in her station wagon, when the sack headed. Suddenly, seeing a large blurred… _something _headed for the hood of her car, she gasped sharply and immediately put on her brakes. Waiting for the no-doubt massive impact, Mrs. Martins closed her eyes tightly and prayed. When nothing happened, she carefully opened one eye, then the other, and stared. By some strange twist of luck, the bag had become snagged in the long, overgrown branches of a large tree on the side of the street. Hearing the angry screech of the tires and seeing the woman stop suddenly, the kids and Tao rushed over to see if she was all right.

Over the excited clamor, Tao managed to make his voice heard. "Hey! Miss, are you okay?"

The woman blinked and then answered shakily, "I – I think so. I saw this... thing falling out of the sky. It was headed right for my car."

A girl pointed up at the sack, now gently swaying in the branches. "You mean that sack, lady?"

"Yeah, that's it. I wonder what's in it?"

With the aid of two of the taller children, Tao managed to disentangle the surprisingly heavy sack from the tree limbs.

"Hold on there! I believe that belongs to us!" shouted a new angry voice in a noticeable accent. Turning to see who the new speaker was, the group saw two men running towards them. One was a huge blonde guy, while the other was a smaller, mean-eyed brunet. They shoved their way through the crowd to confront Tao.

"Yeah, that's our sack!" said the giant, balling his melon-sized fist up. "Give it back, or we'll take it back!"

Mrs. Martins stepped out of her car. Tao was pretty skilled at discerning human emotions, and right now Mrs. Martins looked pretty livid. She pushed her glasses further up on the bridge of her nose, her pale eyes boring hotly into the two strangers the way a woodpecker drills into a tree.

"Are you aware that your sack nearly caused me to have accident?! I ought to sue you two for everything you have!" she exclaimed.

The pair, distracted from threatening Tao, uncertainly regarded the harmless-looking middle-aged woman with the fire in her eyes. The kids were also glowering at the men. Tao realized that if there was ever a time to take control of the situation, then this was it. Calmly folding his arms, he nodded politely to the two strangers.

"Ah. I believe that the both of you are Slade and Gyles, correct? I'm Tao Shang, but my friends call me Tao." He handed the sack over to Gyles, who swung it over one massive shoulder. Turning to Mrs. Martins, Tao continued. "Miss, I apologize. I assure you, this was an honest accident."

Mrs. Martins raised her eyebrows. "And just how does one loose track of a sack like _that_? For something like that to have even occurred, these two… specimens would have to have been hang-gliding with it or something and dropped it!"

While Tao took the angry Mrs. Martins aside to speak with in private, Slade and Gyles exchanged incredulous looks and whispered to one another.

"He's the guy Morrigan sent us to meet?"

"Why, he ain't nothing more then an old coot!"

Tao finally headed back over to them. "I managed to smooth things over with Mrs. Martins, but I suggest we get out of here before she changes her mind," he said. Looking them over, he addressed Gyles, "Where is your son, Mr. Hollingshed?"

"Er..." Slade, the more quick-thinking of the pair, quickly replied, "I told the lad he could walk on ahead of us. Little tyke loves to see the sights."

Tao raised one hoary-gray eyebrow, but nodded crisply, turned, and started to head back to his apartment, waving to his students and Mrs. Martins as he did so. Gyles and Slade had to briskly jog to catch up with the athletic old man, who instructed them, "Follow me to my home. I have some questions for you concerning your contact, Miss Morrigan."

"Can you believe this, Slade?" mumbled an irked Gyles. "That old dog thinks he's in charge of us!"

Slade smiled like the cat who had swallowed the canary. "Oh, he can think that all he wants to. But he'll soon find out who the real boss of this bunch is."

The sight of cars, the enormous shoulder-to-shoulder buildings, and all the other obvious technological differences from their own day and age astounded Slade and Gyles.

"Lookit, Slade! A cart without horses!" exclaimed Gyles, pointing to a passing taxi.

"Er... I take cars aren't used much in your hometown in England?" asked Tao.

Slade massaged his temples. The racket of the busy city was getting to him. "Oh, you could say that. But what's with all this noise, anyhow?"

Chuckling to himself, Tao casually replied, "Oh, you'll get used to it."

**Back in Wicklow **

"Sheila? Babe, are you alright?" Dante desperately asked his injured friend. If he wasn't able to save his human from vermin, then the least he could do was pray to Saint Francis of Assisi, the All-Father, and Mythril that Sheila would be all right. Adagio and Palmer also hovered over the white ferret, extremely worried. Although all three loved Sheila equally, Adagio was the hardest hit by Gyles' attempt on her life, if that were even possible. He considered himself to be Sheila's very own knight in shining armor, and was deeply enamored with her. He would have given up his very breath if it would only make her better.

Sheila lay there for what seemed like forever to the trio, scarcely moving and breathing shallowly. Then finally, her eyes fluttered open, revealing their deep sky blue irises. As she attempted to stand, a slight moan of pain tried to escape her, but the jill just clamped her jaws tightly shut. Faintly she said, "I'm fine, boys – just a little banged up... I've been through worse then that before. It'll take more than being thrown against a wall to kill me."

Tenderly, Adagio placed a paw on Sheila's shoulder, and gently but firmly made her lay down again. "It is wonderful to see that you are well, _cherie_," he said, scarcely able to contain his feelings of joy and excitement. "But lay still for now and hush."

For countless minutes the ferrets had tried to remain motionless and silent in their hideout underneath Tristan's bed, afraid to even draw breath for fear that the witch would discover them. She was searching all over the bedchamber for the four animals, apparently wanting to punish them for getting in the way of kidnapping Tristan.

"Oh little ferrets..." She called out in a sing-song voice. "Come on out, I have something for you! A really good hiding." She murmured this last part underneath her breath.

From the ferrets' point of view, a pair of black leather boots strode past the bed. Palmer hissed softly, "Not on your life, sister!"

"Dante..." whispered Sheila, her voice taking on a tone of urgency. "Do you know who she is?"

He knew, having finally figured out why this girl seemed so familiar to him, but he answered anyways. "Morrigan..."

The four friends couldn't believe it. They all knew that she had been acting moody lately, but they had never expected anything like this to occur.

"Talk about being a few coneys short of a warren," Palmer quipped, taking his paw and making circular motions by the side of his head. Suddenly, Morrigan stopped, turned in their direction, and knelt in front of the bed to peer underneath it at the ferrets.

"Don't think I didn't hear that little remark, you scrawny whelp!" she hissed at Palmer.

The four friends just stared back, surprised. Adagio was completely frozen with fear, his mouth gaping but no sound coming out. Had she just understood what Palmer had said?

As if to answer their question, she replied, "Oh, yes. My powers allow me to understand animals. And now -- " The goshawk that had been sitting on Morrigan's shoulder landed before them, shrieking and struggling to reach them with her knife-sharp talons. " -- I won't hurt any of you, but I can't promise that my bird won't! Look, Rappleye! Dinner!" She gave a short, ugly laugh.

"Dinner? Come to think of it, I haven't eaten in… well, a while!" Dante said thoughtfully as he patted his stomach. He turned to his pals just as they yelped and fled from under the bed in the opposite direction of their antagonists.

"Hate to break it to you, Dante, but I think that oversized canary wants us as her main course!" Palmer squeaked nervously as the goshawk took to the air and began diving at the fleeing ferrets.

"Oh yeah?" growled Dante. Whenever the welfare of his _paisanos_ came into question, Dante always took the initiative. Even had his parents not emphasized the importance of friendship and loyalty back when Dante and his brother were growing up in Italy, he still would have protected his friends from any and all threats without a thought for his own welfare. And no doubt this was a time that required action.

His bravado now thoroughly deflated, Adagio had completely lost his head. He was frantically scampering around and screaming. Rappleye took advantage of his terror and managed to herd him into a corner of the bedchamber. Clacking her talons and curved beak ominously, the bird of prey moved in closer and closer to the trembling Adagio, who had flattened himself against the wall as much as possible and tightly shut his eyes.

"That bird's gonna kill 'Dagie!" Sheila gasped. For the ferrets, time seemed to have completely slowed down now.

Morrigan, meanwhile, just watched. "_Adieu_, little friend." she said smugly.

Rappleye was suddenly sent sprawling wildly to the floor by Dante, who had launched his considerable weight at the raptor from her blind spot.

"_Paisanos_, _run_!" grunted Dante, preparing to tackle Rappleye again. Adagio wasted no time in hotfooting it towards the window to join Palmer, following the younger hob's lead and climbing up on a chest to reach the sill. As Rappleye struggled to regain her footing, Sheila joined Dante, and the two began battling the enraged bird, snapping at her.

"Sheila! I thought I told you to run!"

"And let you have all the fun? Nope!"

"Will you stop being stubborn for once and listen to reason – _duck_!"

Just narrowly evading the goshawk's violently thrashing wings, Sheila replied with a breathless "Thanks!"

Dante succeeded in getting another good hit on Rappleye, this time sending the dizzy goshawk down. Laughing scornfully, Sheila waved her bushy tail in the "dismissed" gesture in Rappleye's face, and then raced alongside Dante towards the window where Palmer was sitting on the sill waiting for them, shouting encouragement to the twosome like their personal cheerleader. Adagio had already made his exit courtesy of a missing glass pane in the window frame that created an escape route big enough for a ferret to get through and onto the windowsill on the outside. All three ferrets disappeared through the hole, with Dante last in line in order to cover their escape.

Outside, it was now dark. A wan half-moon illuminated the sky like a candle, its light occasionally hidden by the passing clouds, and there was a slight breeze that granted them some relief from the humid night air. All three ferrets could sit comfortably on the sill, but it sloped slightly at a downward angle, which didn't exactly help matters. Adagio, still trembling, stood and, padding a little closer to the sill's edge, looked down. The look revealed a long dizzying drop to the dark moat below. He gulped hard and quickly stepped back, pressing his back up against the window.

Dante was still trying to squeeze out of the frame space, but his wide girth hindered him. He grunted and strained with all his might, but was firmly stuck up to his stomach. Though the opening was big enough for the average ferret, Dante was about the size of a small cat and weighed around five pounds. While his size had aided him in battling the goshawk, it did him little good in escaping through a narrow gap.

"Come on, Dante!" Palmer shouted anxiously. "Try to shift your weight!"

"Hurry, _mon ami_! That _vil oiseau _is right behind you! And she looks angry!" Adagio squeaked.

Dante attempted to twist himself around in order to get free. His friends also yanked and tugged on the large ferret, trying to pull him through, but even their combined effort did no good.

"It's no use! I'm too big!" he wheezed.

Back on the inside, Rappleye had returned to her senses. Flapping up onto the bed, she looked around for her prey and spied Dante. With one half of his body stuck in the frame space, the ferret was completely helpless. A triumphant look akin to a smirk appeared on the goshawk's face._ "The fat one's trapped! It'll be easy pickings now! _" She thought to herself.

The goshawk took flight, steadily picking up speed as she zoomed towards the trapped ferret, who still struggled frenziedly. However, Rappleye couldn't stop herself fast enough in time, and hit Dante with such force that he was suddenly freed from the gap – while Rappleye got her own head stuck in turn. Dante, cursing in Italian from pain and fright, went flying into the air and descended below. With the unexpected and sudden sight of her companion becoming airborne and the appearance of the goshawk, Sheila decided to join Dante and took a flying leap off the sill.

"Oh no!..."

Meanwhile, Rappleye thrashed madly about, trying to free her head. Even more furious then she was before, she snapped and screamed at the two remaining ferrets. Horrified, Palmer and Adagio hugged one other, their teeth chattering together in fear. Between jumping off the sill to the murky waters below or being torn to pieces by Rappleye, neither option was too grand. Mentor and student looked at one another.

"I'm starting to wish I was a bird." Palmer said forlornly.

"_Oui_, _mes ami_. But I do not wish to be up here with the feather-bag, so jump!" Both ferrets dove off the sill, escaping Rappleye's beak by a whisker.

"_Au revoir_, bird-brain!" Adagio smugly shouted back at the bird. Looking down, he quickly forgot whatever courage he had mustered up and begun screaming bloody murder.

"Aww man!" Palmer yelled. "I hate baths!"

Dante landed in the moat with a resounding splash, quickly followed by Sheila, Adagio, and Palmer.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

King Allan sipped his mulled wine and stared into space, thinking. Two places where his weary soul could find peace nowadays was either the chapel in the castle keep or his throne room. He was in the latter, sitting on his throne. Two servants stood nearby to assist their king should he need anything.

Suddenly, a man walked into the throne room. Coming to stand before the king, he bowed, but appeared to be highly agitated the entire time, and then finally spoke.

"Your highness, two visitors request your attention concerning an emergency!"

Curious, Allan nodded for the man to continue.

"Mariel, the governess of your children, and their guards, Wallace and Thom!" the man said. The trio paraded in, their airs also visibly shaken.

"What brings the three of you here?" Allan forced himself to ask. He had a feeling that whatever the news was, it was something dire. But what had happened?

Mariel stepped forward. He could tell she had been crying; her eyes were puffy and red, and her cherubim-like cheeks were tear-stained. "M-my Lord, I bring you terrible tidings…"

"_Mother of God_…" He found himself thinking even before the rest of the words came spilling out of her mouth.

"… Prince Tristan -- has b-been kidnapped!"

The sound of the goblet clattering to the floor echoed throughout the room as it slipped from the king's hand.

"Wha --? Kidnapped? But how --?"

"Morrigan's also gone!" she sobbed.

"I was standing guard by the prince's room all night, sire." Wallace said, massaging his forehead in distress. "But not once did anyone come that way!"

"I can say the same for Princess Morrigan. She was quiet all night. I saw her leave but only once yesterday morn – you know how she stays to herself now, your highness." Thom put in. "I only noticed she was gone when the servant girl told me she discovered her missing when she went into her room to awake her for breakfast."

Mariel and Wallace shared a nervous glance between themselves. "Sire, please forgive me. I do not wish to offend you, but… I saw Morrigan." Pausing, the fair-haired man put his palms to his face. "But it was such a hellish sight! One I wish would be wiped from my memory forever! I thought that I had heard some strange sounds from inside the prince's room last night, so I went to go see if everything was all right. I had barely opened the door, but I saw Morrigan inside – before my very eyes, she changed into a spider, then climbed upon the back of a goshawk that flew out the window. The bird – it closed the window behind them before flying away. I immediately made the sign of the cross and fell to the floor. I don't know how long I was out before Thom awoke me."

Mariel nodded in agreement. "Aye, your majesty! I too saw the very same bird around the castle grounds several times earlier!"

For King Allan, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. He fell to his knees, both hands over his face in an attempt to conceal the tears that streamed down his face. So many unanswered questions – had Morrigan really kidnapped Tristan? If so, exactly why? How had she become bewitched in the first place? Why must his daughter revel in wickedness?

**Queens, New York City, the present **

Tristan remained curled up in one corner of a couch and wiped his wet face with the back of his shirtsleeve. The sleeping drug had since worn off, and he had awakened to find himself in this strange house and made to put on bizarre-looking clothing. His little hands balled into fists, Tristan buried his face in soft dark brown fur and began to cry again. The fur belonged to Tao's dog Jess, a female Doberman pinscher-mix who was mainly dark brown-furred, with reddish-brown fur covering her muzzle, underbelly, and paws. Jess whimpered her sympathies to the small boy. Suddenly, the mix's semi-pricked ears perked up as she caught the sound of Tao arguing passionately with his new houseguests.

"And I say it's wrong! I wasn't told the entire truth about this situation!" Tao shouted at Slade, who shot Gyles an irritated look as the bigger henchman walked into the living room carrying a load of food he had just pilfered from Tao's refrigerator in his arms.

"You just _had_ to go and open yer big gob, didn't you, Gyles?"

Taking a huge bite from a turkey leg, Gyles scowled back at the Chinese man. "Just shut up, you lil' old goat! No one gives a damn if you think this is wrong or not! We're just doin' this for the money, which ain't half bad by the way!"

Her hackles rising, Jess began growling at the pair. As she jumped off the couch, her growls became aggressive barks. The two criminals backed away from the big dog nervously.

"Jess -- _down_," Tao said sharply. Jess stopped barking and complied with her master's command, but still growled warnings deep within her throat. Tao turned his attention back to Slade and Gyles.

"I refuse to be a part of this! Now you two get out of my house, or I'll call the police!"

"_That was a bold move."_ Tao thought to himself. What was he supposed to tell the cops? That two time-traveling hoods had kidnapped a little boy who was also from a different time and place in a power-grabbing plot by some strange woman? He had to admit that he found himself a little – okay, very much – stunned by the revelation when he had first actually learned of it. Then again, this was New York City, and stranger things had occurred before. Case in point, a few months ago, Tao thought he had seen big bat-winged creatures flying around Manhattan one night.

"Ooo! The police! We're _so_ scared!" Slade mocked Tao, fanning himself for further effect. "Hell's bells, I don't see why yer so hot! We ain't goin' to kill the child or nothin', an' there's to be no ransom! Look, you promised you'd let us stay with you! Keep your word now, matey, or you can just talk to Lady Morrigan." He said the last two words as though the name would invoke a curse upon whomever he uttered it to.

"Morals are just lost on you, aren't they?" Tao asked dryly. Slade responded by rolling his eyes. "Forcefully taking a child away from his family for God knows how long your nutty boss wants

-- _that's_ not right. I mean, you carried him around doped up in a _bag_! You're lucky I don't get C.P.S.!"

"Oh no you don't." said Gyles, setting the food down on a coffee table and getting in Tao's face. "I got a better idea – get the hell out!"

"You're kicking me out of my own home?!"

"Damn right, you slant-eyed dog! Or do you want me to just work you over?"

Again, Jess came to her master's defense. She bared her fangs and snarled at Gyles, but this time the blonde man ignored the canine. Slade went to aid his friend, keeping a weary eye on Jess at the same time. The dog's threats would prove to be unnecessary, however.

"Come on then, Gyles, let's kick him out!"

"Oh yeah?" Tao replied. "Well, here's a little parting gift for you, my friends..."

As one of Gyles' big fists came flying at him, Tao ducked under the strike and went for Gyles' still extended left forearm. Finding his target, the pressure point, the resourceful man squeezed hard. Gyles hollered in pain and backed off, clutching his aching arm, Slade doing likewise but still threatening Tao. Before turning to leave, the Chinese-American man stopped to get his jacket, then turned to Tristan and Jess, kindly saying, "Do not fear, child. Jess, watch him."

**Wicklow, England **

As Lady Morrigan ended her conversation with Slade, the surface of the scrying pool she was using to communicate with him rippled for a moment, then calm finally returned to its' glassy surface. She was in a little hovel that she had accidentally discovered earlier in a wilder part of Wicklow's forest that superstitious locals said was supposed to be haunted.

After Tao had left to seek help, Slade had quickly reported to Morrigan about Tao's change of heart. In turn, she informed Slade to take care of Tao anyway he and Gyles could short of killing him – for now. She didn't need those buffoons getting law enforcement involved. The seemingly competent Tao had proved useless in the long the run. What was it with warriors and their ilk with all of their ridiculous "honor" business? Their precious honor typically was what eventually got them into trouble anyways. No matter, Tao couldn't really hurt her plans. She decided to pay her father a visit.

Continuing to gloat silently to herself, she cast a teleportation spell, and in five minutes, found herself back in Castle Wicklow, this time in a corridor near the throne room. She had decided not to use Rappleye to go to the castle, as some of the people there had already figured out the bird's connection to her, and others had no doubt been warned about Rappleye. She performed one final incantation, this time a shape-shifting spell. Becoming a spider once again, Morrigan made her way inside the throne room. Here, the air was tense. The king, Wallace, Thom, plus other esteemed and trusted courtiers and guards discussed the dreadful situation at hand.

"Your majesty," one began, "Mayhap once we find Morrigan, we might be able to discover where the prince is being held..."

King Allan sighed, his face a storm cloud. "But finding her is our biggest problem. If she can change her shape, then it will very hard to seek her out. I-I can't believe this – my daughter has kidnapped her own brother, the crown prince!" he roared, slamming his fists down on the tabletop.

"Sire, since she can use magick, why not fight fire with fire? I know of several good magi who would be more then willing to aid us," said a slight but quick-looking young man sitting six chairs away from the king. Everyone looked in his direction as he continued speaking. "The best man for the job would be Sir Eldon the White. He is experienced with many types of magick."

King Allan thoughtfully stroked his bearded jaw. "I have heard of this Eldon, Roger. I know that the church looks down upon mortals trafficking with mages and the like, but in this case I think I'll make an exception. Anyways, I have no quarrel with any of the magi around here." Standing, he motioned to one man sitting at the very end of the table. "Gordon, fetch the royal messenger. Roger, I wish you to go with him to Eldon the White's dwelling, in case Morrigan decides to show up and attack them."

Both men dutifully saluted their king and were off. If spiders could laugh, Morrigan would have been rolling in the aisles, especially at King Allan. Wait until he finally got what was in store for him. Then the whole kingdom would be hers, with no annoying kings or male heirs in her way.


	5. Chapter 5

As dusk stretched its' dark cloak over the land, the sun went to visit the eastern skies for the night. Its' diminishing orange rays illuminated the castle walls and reflected off the surface of the moat.

Floating in the moat was a small, dark object, an animal of some kind. Luckily for the poor creature, instead of sinking to the bottom, it's forequarters had caught onto a drifting tree branch, but left the rest of it's body – it's posterior, hind legs, and tail – underwater. It was a ferret, the non-submerged areas of his coat still damp.

Water – just lots and lots of water was all that Dante could clearly remember last seeing. He was unconscious, but yesterday's events came and went in his mind like a wave of memories.

... Tristan's older sister Morrigan laughing like a lunatic as her goshawk chased Dante and his friends around, intent on ripping them to shreds. Sheila nearly being killed. Rappleye, Gyles, and Slade's faces, all malicious-looking enough to give him nightmares for weeks. His beloved Tristan being put in a sack and then disappearing into an inky black void...

Dante felt awful. He didn't want to wake up. He just wanted to stay here and let the gentle rocking of the waves comfort him.

"_Why do you lay here friend, when evil roams the land and innocents are in peril?_"A rich masculine voice tinged with just the vaguest hint of an accent that Dante couldn't place entered his dreaming mind.

"_Please let me rest, I'm tired_..." Dante protested. A large sleek form gently plucked the ferret from the branch and carried him in its mouth towards the moat bank. A casual passerby would have thought that the form now breaking the water's surface resembled a dog by the look of its head. After getting out the water, the animal carefully set the wet and bedraggled ferret on the bank some feet away from the moat and next to the sleeping forms of Adagio, Sheila, and Palmer, who had been retrieved earlier. Finally, Dante started coughing and spitting up water. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he got his first look at his rescuer: a male river otter as big as a large terrier and brown in fur color, with lighter brown fur accenting his face, throat, and underside, and a strange light in his chestnut-colored eyes.

"Good, you have awakened," the otter cheerfully commented as he watched the smaller mustelid. "You and your friends had a terrible fall."

Dante raised his eyebrows in confusion. "_Grazie _for saving the lives of my _paisanos _and I, _signore_. Um, I don't mean to be rude, but just who are you?"

The otter shook his coat off like a wet dog does, sending sheets of water flying everywhere from his thick pelt. He stopped, and Dante noted with slight amusement that the otter possessed a silver claw on each digit. "_I wonder if I've gone mad…_" he thought.

"I am Camlann." the otter replied.

Dante dipped his head in respect. "I go by Dante." If he was going crazy, then this was a pretty polite hallucination he was speaking to.

"I know." Camlann said.

"But how –"

"Just as I know about the young prince being kidnapped and thrown forward in time," continued Camlann. As Palmer stirred behind him, Dante could only stare in astonishment at the now-serious otter. "But you and your friends must hurry. Morrigan is ruthless and will destroy all who try to stop her."

"I think we found _that_ out," Dante said, wincing slightly from the memories. "But how can we stop someone with magickal powers? The four of us are nothing more then plain old ferrets."

Camlann reclined on the bank, nibbling nonchalantly on a silver claw. "Listen very closely to me, my friend, for I hope that what I am about to say will remain with you. A hero is defined not by what he or she is or might be. They are defined by their actions. Ordinary ferrets or not, the capacity for greatness, for being a hero, lies within each of you. The four of you shall rally to the rescue. There will be those who will try to stop you, even hurt innocents or your friends to get to you, but you shall have allies who will assist you and you will succeed." After this speech, the otter pointed a webbed paw to the top of the embankment. "The king has sent two men to seek out a mage who will return with them here, but they will fall. You and the others must beat them back to the castle and then wait inside."

As Dante stood on his wobbly legs, he looked over at Camlann again. "_Grazie_ once again, Camlann. But if you don't mind my asking, exactly how do you know all of this?"

The big otter rolled lazily onto his back, paws kicking at the air. "Mayhap... I will tell you one day, little friend," he slyly replied. His voice then took on a more solemn, though warmer tone. "But I will always be there for the four of you. Good luck and good hearts, brave warriors."

The sound of one of his comrades yawning caused Dante to turn to see who was responsible. As he did so, Dante asked, "Brave warriors? Us?" But when Camlann didn't respond, Dante looked around for him. The unusual otter was gone.

"Who-who... was that otter?" a groggy Palmer asked.

"A good friend," Dante thoughtfully replied. "But is everyone alright?"

"_Oui. _And we are all still alive!" Adagio enthusiastically exclaimed as he and Sheila began to stretch and groom their fur. Getting a rein on his urge to joyously hop around, Adagio padded over closer to Sheila, who was busy removing some dead grass that had gotten entangled in the fur of her tail. He carefully smoothed out his coat, whiskers, and goatee, eager to make a good impression on the jill.

"_Cherie_, are you feeling a lot better today?" he inquired, lowering his voice. Sheila looked up at her friend and smiled, which nearly knocked him off his paws. St. Francis, she was gorgeous. After their near-death experience at Morrigan's hands last night, everything was looking beautiful to Adagio, and Sheila's own beauty was certainly no exception. He had always had a soft spot for Sheila and she for him, stretching from the time that he had first met her when they were both kits, Sheila a timid little ball of white fur, and especially when he had found out she had been practically orphaned. Being fatherless himself, he could identify all too easily with Sheila.

"Yeah, 'Dagie. Thanks for asking." she answered, her voice like the sweetest music to his ears.

"Hey, boys and girls!"

That would be Dante, always bumbling into the way of Adagio's romantic intentions. Annoyed, the French ferret turned to glare at Dante, the fur on his tail and the nape of his neck bristling. For his part Dante ignored Adagio's dirty look, just chalking it up to him waking up on the wrong side of the bed – or in this case, the bank.

"C'mon. We need to climb up the embankment and go back to the castle."

"Why the fuzz we would need to do that?" snapped Adagio, a sour sneer on his face. "We would have to deal with Morrigan and her cronies, remember? Or did you hit your head while falling too?"

Dante looked coolly back at Adagio. "Let's just say a little otter told me."

Palmer started to dance around, chanting, "He's right, he's right! I saw the otter too! He said we should go back to the castle because help's arriving!"

"Can't argue with that," Sheila said. She hadn't seen the enigmatic otter herself, but she did have a gut feeling that Dante was right about heading back to Castle Wicklow.

Adagio just watched his protégé as he dashed up the bank. Personally, he thought that both Palmer and Dante had ingested some moat water when they had fallen in. With a sigh of defeat, Adagio joined his companions as they scaled the muddy banks of the castle moat.

King Allan patiently waited in the throne room for the return of Roger and the messenger, plus the arrival of Sir Eldon the White.

Well, _attempted_ to wait patiently. His Highness's constant fidgeting belied his actual feelings. Another man who was slightly older then Allan and had tow-colored hair that was graying on the sides watched as the king drummed his fingers on the side of his throne.

"Sire, do not worry. My son Roger is one of the fastest riders in the kingdom, and just as fast with his mind. They'll return soon. And then we shall get down to the business of rescuing the prince."

While Morrigan sat in spider-shape on the head post of the throne, listening to them talk, King Allan stretched, more out of nervousness rather then an actual need to.

"I do not doubt your son's capabilities, William. Roger has always served both the kingdom and myself loyally. But I am also deeply worried about Morrigan. After all, she is my only daughter."

William nodded in agreement. "I understand perfectly, your majesty. All good parents love their children, even if the child does not return their sentiments. Perhaps deep down inside, the old Morrigan may still be in there."

After the two men finished their conversation, Morrigan sprang from her perch and delivered a swift bite to King Allan's cheek. Allan let out a sharp cry of pain and slapped at his cheek, but Morrigan had already made it to the floor and was running for the closest exit.

Hearing King Allan's shout, William immediately rushed over to see what had happened. "Sire? Something the matter?"

Allan was now slumped over in his throne, a hand on his forehead. "Something bit my cheek! I fear it may have been something poisonous..."

"I'll fetch help, my lord." William reassured him. Finding a young page outside, William ordered him to take care of King Allan while he went to seek the doctor. The page raced to go get a damp rag to soothe Allan's feverish forehead.

The sky was a deep black-blue by the time Roger and the others returned to Castle Wicklow later that night. It had been long ride to Sir Eldon's manor in the countryside, but they had ridden their steeds hard. After crossing the drawbridge and going onto the castle grounds, the three men dismounted from their tired horses and put them in the stables, then rushed inside the castle. Roger and the messenger, Oliver, were respectful and polite to Sir Eldon the White, but were also eager to see King Allan.

"I wonder if anything has occurred while we were gone?" Roger wondered aloud as the trio walked down the main corridor towards the throne room. Everything seemed strangely quiet, save for the rustling of their feet through the scented herb and straw mixture that covered the floor. Roger called out to a wide-eyed servant girl who suddenly came racing by as though looking for someone or something.

"You there! Where is the king?"

The girl replied, her face panic-stricken, "His Majesty's taken ill! They say its witchcraft!"

She ran off before they could question her further. Roger and Oliver cast a glance at Sir Eldon. Standing several inches taller then even Roger, who was considered tall by most people, the much-older man was an imposing-looking individual, his hawk-like nose, bushy silvered brows, and stern eyes, which were the color of a northern sea, adding to his striking appearance.

"I hate to point fingers," he said in a baritone voice, "but from what the both of you have explained to me, this has the handiwork of a mage all over it, or at least someone knowledgeable in poisons and herbs."

"Morrigan..." Oliver whispered fearfully, half to himself and half to Roger and Eldon. The haversack Eldon carried over his shoulder suddenly bulged and started to move, and a small fox-like head poked out from underneath the flap. The animal's black nose-pad twitched as it sniffed the air.

"Presently, I scent no arcane energy," it formally announced. The messenger looked at the animal, uncomfortable. He had been brought up in the religious teachings of the church, and wasn't used to the idea of animals that could speak.

Noting the man's nervousness, Eldon chuckled and patted the creature's head. "It's necessary that I bring Pyewicket along. He is my avatar after all, and can detect the presence of magick, as you can see."

"And I make a mean calzone too." The animal quipped. Both the knight and messenger could now see that it was a dog, a tri-color one of the corgi-type.

Unbeknownst to the four, there were others in the castle hall. Dante, Adagio, Palmer, and Sheila had made it back inside and were currently hiding in a corner of the hall in order to avoid being seen. The four peered from underneath the straw at the three men. Everyone, human and animal, was aware of the unusually stillness around them, pressing in on them like a hand suffocating a sleeper. Which was odd, since, while the noise level at Castle Wicklow had decreased since Queen Helena's bad take of health, the castle had at least still bustled with some activity. Since the return of both ferrets and men, neither faction had really seen anybody aside from one or two people.

"Be on the lookout for anything funny!" Roger cautioned. His hackles were up. "I don't like this."

As if on cue, a brown bear skin rug that had been lying on the floor nearby suddenly sprang to life, regaining all of the formidable mass and muscle that it had had before it had been killed in the same instant. The great beast charged the three men, swatting the hapless Oliver aside with a single swipe of its' paw. The man flew through the air and crashed against the wall. Luckily, he was only knocked unconscious. Eyes blazing like scarlet embers, the bear then turned on Roger and Eldon.

"Guess that's magickal enough!" Pyewicket yelped. Leaping out of the haversack, he landed at his master's feet and peeked from around the old man's legs at the bear. Preparing to defend himself, Roger drew his broadsword, but Eldon quickly chanted an incantation. The bear immediately reverted back to rug form.

Hearing the sound of steady applause, everyone whirled around. Lady Morrigan loomed out of the shadows, clapping her slender white hands together. "Very good. I heard that you were a mage of excellent prestige, Sir Eldon. But that won't do you any good here today."

"_Vile witch_!" roared Roger, rushing at her with his weapon raised in the air. Morrigan spoke a single word and gestured lazily at the young man. Roger suddenly found himself encased within a transparent, pale green bubble which threatened to suffocate him as it constricted around him, growing smaller and smaller by the second. Pyewicket bounded over to the struggling young man and began to chant another invocation.

"This isn't exactly your typical store-brand bubble wrap," the corgi grumbled.

Morrigan smiled primly. "You're right, it's not. It's a little trick I learned. It won't kill the poor little knight, but merely incapacitate him for a few hours. The boy's lucky I was feeling gracious just then."

"Hatred and madness burns in your eyes," Eldon said severely, getting over his initial surprise.

"Why do you seek to harm these people and take over your parents' kingdom? No one here has done any harm to you! Or has your soul become so tainted by darkness that you cannot recognize friend from foe anymore?"

Morrigan stared at Eldon as though seeing him for the first time. Slowly she raised her pale trembling hands, staring at them in horror. "You're – you're right… my lord, what have I done?" Sinking to her knees, she buried her face in her hands and began sobbing. "Help me! I don't know if I can stop myself!"

Feeling pity for the girl, Sir Eldon started to move closer to comfort her, but stopped, hesitant. On one hand, his mind was telling him to be cautious. Yet her crying did appear to be genuine. He finally decided to see if she was being serious or not. Morrigan, still crying, had crawled closer to him while he was thinking and grasped at his robes. Surprised, Eldon looked down at her. A wisp of what appeared to be deep gold-colored vapor suddenly emerged from her eyes and flowed into his own. Eldon cried out in alarm and backed away, but the damage was done. The dark gold fog left his eyes, now entwined with a tendril of deep blue mist. Both streams of arcane energy returned to Morrigan's eyes as she stood, smiling at her victory.

"There's no fool like an old fool!" She gloated as Eldon, now robbed of much of his mystical power, weakened and fell to his hands and knees.

"You… will not triumph…" The wizard gasped weakly.

"Simpleton, do you not see, or is your mind clouded by age? I have the prince and now your powers! I have already won!" Morrigan sneered as she approached Eldon. "Now, lay down like the dog that you are!" One vicious kick sent him sprawling on his side to the floor.

"That was pathetic," Morrigan chuckled. Looking around, she set her sights on Pyewicket, who was attempting to sneak out of the hall. "And speaking of dogs..." Morrigan sent a bolt of mystic energy into the floor his way. It furrowed through the floor, then exploded right underneath the canine avatar and sent him flying into the air. Pyewicket grunted as he landed and the wind was knocked right out of him.

"How much for that doggie in the window? That unconscious little one on the floor..." Morrigan sang mockingly. She then made a strange wavering whistle, and in a few minutes, Rappleye came soaring through the air and landed on Morrigan's outstretched arm.

"Rappleye, shall we see Sir Eldon off to the dungeon?"

The goshawk made a trilling noise that sounded a lot like laughter in response. Morrigan shut her eyes as she began to concentrate, and started to chant another spell. A circle of black energy tinged with white sparks pooled around Eldon's prone form, completely surrounding him. Seconds later, a similar ring enclosed around Pyewicket. Both disappeared – teleported away to the dungeon. After that was over and done with, Morrigan and Rappleye left.

When they were sure the duo weren't going to return, the ferrets started breathing normally again, but these latest developments were deeply troubling.

"Ooo, great plan there, Dante. Really." Adagio said, using the especially sarcastic tone of voice he often saved just for Dante. "The mage can _really_ give us a hand now."

However, Dante wasn't listening to the red-furred ferret. "Camlann... he was right..." he murmured to himself, amazed.

This earned him a sharp look from Adagio. "What?"

"The otter – er – nothing. We need to head to the dungeon! Sir Eldon may still be able to help us!"

"How? All this running around is getting ridiculous!"

"Look, just trust me!"


	6. Chapter 6

-1Sir Eldon sat in a dusty dungeon corner, his head in his hands. Next to him, laid out on the floor, was Pyewicket. He groaned as he began to stir. "Did anyone catch that wild horse that trampled me?"

"If only it were a wild horse, Pyewicket," Eldon replied. "I'm afraid we've been had."

"Aw, come on sir, things can't be all that bad." Pyewicket said, sitting up.

"Well, the king and queen hover between life and death, Morrigan has stolen most of my arcane power, and the prince has been kidnapped."

Pyewicket's ears flattened back against his head, and he lay back down. "Wow, sir, that is pretty bad. Now I'm depressed. Just… just do me a favor and don't wake me up!" Howling miserably, the dog covered his eyes with his paws and began rolling around on the floor. Sir Eldon couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly at his avatar's dramatics.

The four ferrets meanwhile, after effortlessly squeezing underneath the dungeon door, were now slinking cautiously through the dungeon, sniffing and looking around for Sir Eldon.

"What is all that horrible noise?" growled Adagio. "Are they torturing people in here?" Glancing over to his right, he suddenly brightened. "Hey! I see _monsieur_ Eldon!"

Dante nodded. "That's the man we need to see." The ferrets made a beeline for the mage.

Sir Eldon was about to politely request that Pyewicket find something more constructive to do with his time when something nipped his foot. Looking down to see what had bitten him, he saw the four mustelids gathered at his feet.

Sheila looked smugly at her friends. "I got his attention, boys."

"Well, Pyewicket, I think we have visitors!" Eldon announced, stopping Pyewicket in the midst of his hysterics. "I believe they're the young prince's pets."

"Pets?" Sheila growled, glaring up at Eldon. "The name's Sheila to you, gramps!"

Dante took his turn speaking to the mage, albeit more politely than his lady friend. "I'm Dante. Excuse my _paisano_ here, but -- "

"I am Adagio. I think what fat-boy is trying to say is that we need you to stop the evil rat lady!"

"And call me Palmer!"

Pyewicket gave a contemptuous sniff in the ferrets' direction, then relayed what they had said to Eldon, who, since loosing most of his power to Morrigan, could no longer understand animal speech, save for that of mystical ones like Pyewicket. "These four... vagabonds want you to rescue Prince Tristan."

With another growl Sheila turned to face Pyewicket, intensely staring him down. "Who are you calling vagabonds, trash-eater? Are you looking for a fight?"

"Ah, well..." The canine avatar coughed, brown eyes nervously shifting from side to side.

Eldon was silent as he went over the situation in his head. "_If I cast one more spell, I will completely lose my power. But the kingdom is in grave danger_..."

"Not only was Tristan kidnapped, but if Morrigan actually takes the throne, then Wicklow's gonna be ruled by a megalomaniac!" Dante exclaimed. The other ferrets nodded their agreement.

"You guys know what I miss the most? Tris's hugs." Sheila said in a tiny voice.

"Not to mention all the fun we had together," Adagio glumly put in, tracing patterns in the dust with his paw.

"Pyewicket," Sir Eldon said, standing with a flourish. "I believe I have a solution for our four new friends." The ferrets exchanged happy glances, then gave a ragged cheer.

"Kicking them out and coming up with an all-new plan?"

Everyone ignored the corgi, who muttered something under his breath and padded off to another area of the dungeon. Summoning every single ounce of strength and mystical power he still possessed, Sir Eldon the White began to recite a spell, gesturing to Dante, Palmer, Adagio, and Sheila in turn as he did so. A soupy, swirling white mist surrounded each surprised ferret before finally obscuring them all from view completely.

Dante shook his head. He felt rather lightheaded, and the last two minutes were a total blur to him. _"Huh? What just happened?..._"

The sable ferret decided to clear away some of that annoying white fog that was surrounding him and obscured everything from him. He jumped, startled, as a large, muscular arm suddenly passed in front of his face.

Then he realized that the arm was _his_.

Dante was now bipedal, just like a human. He stood at 6'4'' even, and had a well-built though stocky humanoid body. The well-muscled forearms that he was now flexing were actually his forelegs when he had been an ordinary ferret.

Nearby, his three companions were looking equally astonished, also realizing that now they too no longer had their normal bodies, but ones very similar to those of humans. However, their new forms were combined with certain aspects of their ferrety features as well, including their normal fur, tails, and heads. Picking up a grimy glass shard (_"With my brand new opposable thumbs, nonetheless!"_ Palmer gushed) and studying himself in it, Palmer finally broke his cohorts' stunned silence.

"Wow! This is so cool!"

The others stared at him in shock.

"Uh... _mes amie_? You just spoke human English." A very amazed Adagio pointed out. Like Dante, he was muscular in his new form, but far more trim and defined-looking then the other ferret was. His tawny-gold eyes widened with surprise at the sound of his own voice. "_Sacre bleu_! So did I!"

"Check out these uniforms, boys." said a sultry feminine voice from behind them. The male ferrets all turned to look at Sheila.

In the hobs' eyes, the transfiguration spell hadn't really done anything for Sheila's height, as she still remained the most diminutive ferret, standing only 5'3''. She was small-chested and svelte in build, and had nice-looking legs. Sheila was referring to the ornate costumes that each of them now wore. None of them had ever seen anything like them before in their lives. Each outfit consisted of an off-white cavalier-style long-sleeved tunic, with a black shoulder belt looping around their right shoulders and extending all the way down to their left hips, full-length black trousers tucked into black leather boots, and matching black leather gauntlets and waist belts. A dagged tabard – which was best described as a long smock of sorts, royal blue in color and trimmed with white – covered the tunic.

Dante's uniform differed somewhat from the others. He had the cavalier tunic, trousers, boots, and gauntlets, as well as the waist and shoulder belts, but instead of a tabard, he had a silver-trimmed royal blue frock coat over the black vest he wore over his tunic. There was a white cravat, a narrow strip of white cloth, tied loosely around his neck in the front, with lace at its' ends bunching at his throat. He and Adagio also wore black fold-up cavalier hats adorned with a single white plume, while Sheila's tabard had a hood attached to it that she could draw over her head and Palmer sported a black beret that came with a white plume.

Not only had they gotten clothing, but each ferret had a weapon now as well. Sheila had a crossbow in a case that was made onto the back of her shoulder belt, while Palmer was armed with a dirk that had an elaborate silver hilt in the shape of an ermine and came set in a black leather scabbard trimmed with silver mounts. Adagio and Dante's respective belts included black leather scabbards with silver mounts as well, only their scabbards held long rapiers. Dante also had a second weapon, an ash wood bo-staff (which he had dropped when trying to clear away the fog a few minutes ago).

"So, I take it all of you like your new forms?"

The ferrets turned to see Sir Eldon leaning against the wall for support and watching them. Casting the enchantment had taken a lot out of him. Pyewicket was wrapped around his legs, attempting to support his master.

"This... this is very nice." Dante said, clearly pleased. "Although we really don't look _all_ that different if you think about it." The other ferrets also voiced their approval.

Pyewicket rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you cast the _mutobestia_ spell on them, master."

"Believe it, fat head," Sheila smirked. Palmer glanced over at Adagio and Dante and frowned.

"Hey! I don't mean to sound ungrateful over here, but how come I don't get any muscles?" he complained. Palmer still was just as thin and gangly as he was in his ordinary form.

Walking over to his friend, Dante affectionately threw a brawny arm around Palmer's narrow shoulders. "Trust me, you'll get some when you're a little older, _bambino_. You're still not quite an adult."

"I like the long legs and stuff, but exactly how is all this gonna help us stop Morrigan?" Sheila asked, puzzled. "Roger had all the same things we have now -- er, kinda -- " Palmer and Adagio laughed suggestively among themselves, and Sheila shot them a look before continuing, "-- but she still shellacked 'im."

"I was just getting to that," Sir Eldon said. He sat down on the bench, sighing with the effort. "I used the very last of my magick reserves to make the four of you 'humanimals'. You are stronger, faster, and more in touch with your senses then either man or beast. You are also able to willfully shift from your enhanced forms to your regular ones and back again. And finally, all of you have been gifted with special powers that can aid you if you choose to use them."

"Like what?" Palmer asked, jogging in place as he tested his legs.

"You possess great intelligence and a sense of smell superior to the best hound's."

Palmer grinned happily at this.

"Adagio, you can become invisible, completely hiding yourself from the naked eye --" Adagio giggled. Sir Eldon stared at the hob like a teacher would at a misbehaving student.

"Sorry, _monsieur_. I, uh, just thought of something really funny, that's all." He quickly said, trying to hide his amusement. He began walking around, repeating the words, "Invisible!" and "Go invisible!" over and over underneath his breath.

"Er... right. Sheila, the speed and quickness you have always been endowed with has carried over to your new form – you have incredible speed and acrobatic agility."

"That sounds pretty sweet." Sheila replied.

"The same goes for you, Dante, only your strength and durability was enhanced."

"_Grazie_, _signore_ Eldon. So, exactly how strong am I supposed to be?"

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure. As with all powers, there are limits to yours, but they shall gradually develop further as time progresses as well. This is why the four of you must thoroughly test and hone your abilities all the time, to be fully aware of all their angles."

"Damn. There's always some sort of catch to these sort of things." Sheila grumbled.

Walking over to the elderly man, Dante warmly embraced him. "Well, _grazie_ again. Now if you gentlemen will excuse us, we're off to save Tristan. _Ciao_." He and the other ferrets, including Adagio, still muttering to himself, headed towards the dungeon door. "Oh, and feel free to escape once I take care of the door here."

"Sure, run off without any semblance of a plan whatsoever." yawned Pyewicket. "It'll make your defeat at Morrigan's hands all the more pathetic."

That got the four's attention. They all turned around to look back at the corgi. "Excuse me?" Sheila asked, cupping a hand around her ear as though not really hearing him.

"Oh, I was just saying that without a plan handy Morrigan could and would spank all of you like pups who've just been caught in the henhouse. I mean, you don't even know how to properly use your weaponry, or how your powers work for that matter. Somehow I doubt that just saying 'invisible!' will make them work." Here he looked pointedly at Adagio.

Sheila growled, while Adagio and even the two other hobs looked offended.

"Ha! For your information, _monsieur_ _toutou_, we have seen swordsmen and knights in action before!" Adagio sneered at the corgi avatar. "So I think that Morrigan will not stand a chance against us!"

"Actually, Pyewicket makes a good point, if rather crudely put." Sir Eldon spoke up. A sly twinkle entered his eyes. "I was planning to train the four of you – that is, if you feel you're up to the challenge. I mean, what with all the responsibility, discipline, and hard work that's involved with being warriors and everything, I'm not quite sure if house pets could stand up to such rigors..."

Palmer jumped on Dante and hugged his friend's neck, pleading, "Pleasepleaseplease can we take on the awesome responsibilities of becoming warriors?! Please?!"

After a brief conference, the ferrets eventually consented their agreement to the idea. Sir Eldon and even Pyewicket then proceeded to guide the four in an intense training session that lasted for three days.

Relatively later on, Adagio, with the intention of paying Dante back for the incident with Sheila at the moat bank, became partially invisible so that only his mouth (which was set in a grin) was still visible and stealthily crept over to where the big ferret was relaxing to harangue him. Dante, his patience now worn thin by the antics Adagio had been subjecting him to ever since gaining better control over his invisibility, responded by swatting the redhead away with a flick of his super-powerful wrist. Yet despite nearly accidentally killing one another several times over, Adagio, Palmer, Dante, and Sheila did get enough basic knowledge concerning their powers and learned not to use them without just reason, but rather, in times of real peril.

On the final day, while the gang was drilling hard for their upcoming rescue mission, Pyewicket, who had found a way to sneak in and out of the dungeon (and would do so for short periods of time, bringing back items they needed that would go unnoticed by Morrigan and her cronies), also filled them in on Wicklow's current desperate situation. Upon hearing how Lady Morrigan now claimed the throne for herself and had anyone who disagreed with her either put in the stocks or tossed into jail, even nobles, Dante grew upset.

"She can't do that, that _strega_!" Currently, he was in a sparring match with Sheila, being very careful not to injure his much smaller, lighter opponent. Sheila adeptly deflected a punch coming for her.

"Yeah! So now can we go get Tristan back and save the kingdom already? Dante – stop treating me like a kit and start fighting me already."

Sir Eldon, who stood nearby looking on, stroked his silvery beard in contemplation. "Well, I do believe that the four of you are finally ready to embark upon your quest. The only problem is that for the time being, none of you will be able to return with the prince."

Adagio, who was practicing fencing with Palmer using wasters, or wooden swords, looked over at the wizard in shock. "_Mon dieu_! Then... we will be stuck in the future forever?!" Likewise, the expressions on the others' faces ranged from disturbed to alarmed. The prospect of being stranded in a time and place that was not their own was a frightening one.

"Yes," Sir Eldon answered, a sincerely apologetic look on his face. "I'm truly sorry, but Pyewicket and I have just discovered this ourselves. Due to the conflicting mystical energies from the time-travel spell and the eldritch residue of the _mutobestia_ spell, any attempt to return with him now might mean all of your deaths."

"Hey, if we can make it here, then we can make it anywhere?" Dante suddenly chuckled. "We'll find Tristan and bring him home." He moved as if to suddenly charge Sheila, but she feinted to the right, then, rushing forward with a fierce cry, delivered a kick that caught Dante squarely in the chest. As Dante stumbled back a few steps, taken aback by the amazing speed of the attack, Sheila finished by knocking Dante onto his back with a sweeping kick. For his part, Dante sat up and dizzily shook his head.

"Dante? Are you alright?" Sheila asked as she knelt next to him and looked him in the face, concern in her eyes and voice.

Dante grinned sheepishly. "Nah, _paisan_, I'm not really hurt. Super-durability, remember? By the weasel's whiskers, you're fast! Nice job!"

Sheila smiled modestly . "Eh, it comes with the package, I guess."

"Question is, exactly how_ do _they get to the future?" Pyewicket asked. He was sitting in his usual spot, at the feet of his master. "Lady Morrigan constantly has guards stationed around the time-gateway. At night she guards it herself, usually in one of her animal forms."


	7. Chapter 7

**Queens, New York City **

Slade grinned triumphantly as he looked out over the crowded room. Once he and Gyles had gotten settled into their new time period and pirated home, they were all too glad to realize that they weren't the only criminals in the city. Upon getting out onto the streets, sleazy bars, and other assorted points of criminal interests, they had met many others like them. Now, many of these same criminals were presently congregating inside Tao's trashed apartment. For the last two weeks, the "Wild Boys", as they now called themselves, had alternately been having fun and making a living (by their standards) by hassling storekeepers and the like for money, dealing drugs, and just generally keeping the NYPD up in arms. The Wild Boys' numbers included petty crooks and murderers, and although the gang was no match for the more prestigious and powerful New York-based crime syndicates like the Kingpin's organization, the cunning Slade was hoping to change those odds in time.

"Osa just called. Said he'd be willing to meet tomorrow night," Gyles said, stomping over to his friend. He was referring to Tommy "Net" Osa, a small-time gang leader from the Bronx with a penchant for computers and hacking. Gyles adjusted his new black leather jacket, even though it was about two sizes too small for him. "Also, Randall racked in $900 bucks yesterday."

"And I was just thinking of a way to make even more," Slade murmured thoughtfully. Leading his friend down the hallway and towards the last bedroom at the end, he opened the door and pointed to the bed. Prince Tristan lay there asleep, Jess curled up next to him. Instead of his princely attire, Tristan now wore modern garb; a white T-shirt featuring the New York Knicks logo on it, black denim jeans, and a red baseball cap. Raising her head, Jess warily eyed the intruders, the beginnings of low growl in her throat.

"Shut up, ya stupid mutt!" Slade growled. Turning to his friend, he started to complain. "I thought we said we was gittin' rid of that dog?"

Gyles shrugged. As long as the mutt kept the boy occupied, he really didn't care one way or the other if she stayed. "What was it you was sayin'?"

"That we should sell that kid! In this time, you know how much desperate childless couples'll pay to get a kid of their own?"

"But shouldn't we wait for Morrigan's commands?..."

"Screw her! We ain't heard from her in several days now! She's probably havin' a grand old time ruling Wicklow!"

As they continued to debate, the two men left the room. Once they were gone, Tristan cautiously opened his eyes. He realized that one matter took precedence over everything else now –

escape.

**Wicklow, England **

"Ready?"

"Set."

"_Oui_."

"Ready, Big D!"

The four humanimals had finally left the gloomy depths of dungeon behind thanks to Dante, and were now sneaking through one of the castle's hallways.

"Sheila – look around and see if there's any enemies on patrol or something else we should know about. Adagio, get invisible and help her."

"You do not need to tell me twice, _mon amie_," the other ferret said in a hushed tone. As he concentrated, Adagio's form appeared to flicker and warp for a few seconds, like heat pouring off a hot desert highway, then finally vanished from sight altogether. Sheila, who was pacing back and forth with barely restrained energy while Adagio was focusing his power, finally zipped off down the corridor, a streak of white and blue. When the pair had gone, Dante turned to Palmer, chuckling softly.

"Poor Morg shoulda realized that there's still folks around here who know this old castle like the back of their hands -- or paws."

"I'll say," Palmer giggled. While they had been in the dungeon, Pyewicket had also told them of the whereabouts of the time-gateway. It was located in the king and queen's old bedchamber. Morrigan figured that both would never really need it again and had taken over the chamber for herself, placing the two inert rulers in a well-guarded room in one of the tower's.

Just as quickly as she had left, Sheila returned. A little afterwards, Adagio suddenly rematerialized behind her.

"There's a few guards around," the jill reported, "but they can all be easily avoided. There's no one near the royals' bedchamber right now, so you can bet your sweet tail that the ice queen herself is in there guarding that portal. Oh, I also gave one of the guards a little love-tap on the head at high speed." She smirked at this last part.

"Okay, so let's head towards the bedchamber then," Dante said. The four mustelids exchanged high-fives and continued slinking down the hallway, their weapons withdrawn.

Sniffing the air, Palmer cautiously peeked around the half-opened door and into the huge bedchamber. Inside, he could make out what appeared to be, at first glance, merely a simple hole in the wall – actually the time-gateway – on the leftmost side of the room near the bed. As dark as the inside of that remarkable anomaly was, a faint but tangible and almost eerie-looking gleam of gold light reflected from it onto the walls, like light reflecting off a watery surface. Palmer also recognized Rappleye, who was perched on the end of the headboard sound asleep, and a furry creature around the size of a small cat resting on a pillow that had been thrown onto the floor.

"Can you scent any magick traps or anything like that?" Sheila asked him, being careful to speak very low so as to avoid detection.

Shaking his head, Palmer replied, "I am capable of tracking corporeal odors, but cannot detect the presence of eldritch energy."

"… Ok-ay…"

"Hey, guys!" Palmer whispered over his shoulder, lapsing back into his normal mode of speech, "Take a look inside! What's that on the pillow there?"

Palmer's teammates all peered into the bedchamber. Even though the only light in the room was being cast by the time-gateway, the humanimals, having far better night vision then either a normal person or ferret, swiftly adjusted to dim light, and they saw everything just as clearly as they could in the daytime. Their eyes quickly found the creature that Palmer was asking about.

Adagio grimaced as he recognized the animal. "It is a rat!" he growled, the disgust in his voice obvious. In his youth, the red-furred ferret's family served as hunters for a French baron, flushing small game. Oftentimes, they were used to clear rats out of the nobility's homes as well, so there was no love loss between Adagio and rodents.

"And a good-sized one too," commented Dante. "I think that's our girl."

"Spiders, rats…" Sheila mused. "I wonder how far her lil' one-woman menagerie can go?"

"I don't know, but she needs to be stopped, that's for sure. Got the sleeping powder?"

Sheila reached on the inside of her tabard and into one of several pockets that had been sewn underneath the ornamented side. After a moment, she pulled out a small green glass vial filled with a granulated substance that Sir Eldon had given them. Stealthily slinking into the room, she uncorked the bottle and gently sprinkled a smidge of the dark grayish-green powder onto Morrigan's nose. Everyone held their breath as the rat sneezed. Suddenly, she relaxed, seeming to breath deeper and more slowly then before.

Dante nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, _paisanos -_- to the future!"

The ferrets whispered a collective "It's ferret-time!", transforming back into their normal forms, and leapt one at time into the time-gateway, towards their destinies...


	8. Chapter 8

-1**Chapter 8**

** Forest Park, New York City **

... And right into a water fountain in a park.

Four separate splashes heralded the arrival of our four furry heroes (and heroine).

"I noticed that we and water seem to meet a lot, _oui_?" Adagio sputtered dryly as he resurfaced after going under. The hapless ferret was in front of a statue of a plump cherub pouring a jar of water right onto his head. Clambering over the side of the fountain and out of the water, the ferrets shook their fur dry and muttered despairingly among themselves. Dante was the only one who didn't mind the water much. Looking around, the stocky ferret had one question.

"Is… this the future?"

At that, the other ferrets finally started taking in their surroundings as well, taken aback by the strangeness of this new land. They were surrounded by any number of trees, shrubs, and other plant life, some of it very exotic-looking. What appeared to be some kind of smooth beige-colored stone street – what people in modern times know as cement -- rested underneath their paw-pads. Something else that was unusual to the quintet and caught their eyes was the strangely garbed humans of all different shapes, sizes, and physical characteristics in the middle of doing various activities. They had never seen so many humans all in the same place before – and so curious-looking when compared to the people from their own time. What all of these humans did have in common though was a less then positive reaction to four ferrets suddenly climbing out of the fountain.

"Oh my God! Rats!" A large woman sitting on the grass nearby screamed, protectively pulling her two small children close to her. A tall dark-skinned man standing close by with his back to the woman looked to see what the ruckus was about, then gasped upon seeing the ferrets and backed away as if he had just glimpsed a hungry tiger.

"Wild animals! And I think they got rabies!"

Someone else shouted, "Don't just stand there! Someone call animal control or something!"

The "rats" paused on the spot, confused by the panic. Hadn't any of these humans ever seen ferrets before?

"We are most assuredly _not_ rats." Adagio hissed, feeling insulted. He quickly looked himself over. "Is my muzzle that long?"

"Dumb humans," Sheila growled low. She exchanged glances with her compatriots. "What should we do, boys? They think we're vermin."

A grin spread across Adagio's face. "Show them that we are really the heroes."

Dante looked at him. "Um... shouldn't we try to remain undercover as much as possible?"

"Forget it. They have seen us already."

"Um, okay, I suppose..."

"_It's Ferreteer time_!"

Everyone recoiled, confused and surprised as four bright flashes of white light emanated from the spot where the "rats" were. Now standing in their places were what only could be described as four clearly armed animal-people. If small slinky animals had horrified them before, then human-sized anthropomorphic ones were even more terrifying.

Palmer stepped forward, his tail wagging as he smiled brightly. "Hi, evryone! We're the good guys, see, and -- "

He didn't even get a chance to finish as hordes of shrieking people stormed out of the meadow. In a few seconds, the only signs that anyone had even been in the area were the sundry items that were scattered everywhere, having been hastily discarded in the humans' efforts to flee.

"Well, at least we don't have anymore unwanted attention." Sheila sniggered wickedly.

Walking over to a hotdog cart, Dante searched around inside for a quick snack. "Well, I guess we shouldn't do that anymore, at least not for now – it just causes too much commotion. We should stay in our normal shapes while we're out in public."

"But it takes us far too long to get around as ordinary ferrets!" Adagio complained. "And in a strange place like this, it will take forever to get to Tristan!"

"Maybe. But that would be better than being spotted by one of Slade or Gyle's lackeys," Dante replied, swallowing the rest of his hot dog. He performed an Italian gesture of approval, bringing his thumb and the rest of his five fingers together towards his mouth and making a kissing sound. "The food here is great! Palmer," he turned to the young ferret, "Can you scent Tristan? Or Slade or Gyles?"

Palmer methodically walked around the park, his pink nose-pad twitching as he sniffed the crisp air for a familiar scent. Abruptly halting by a lamppost, his deep burgundy eyes suddenly widened in recognition.

"Aha! It's very faint, but Tristan's scent still lingers here!"

"Then by all means, lead the way, _paisano_. We can revert back once we're out of this town square... or whatever this place is..."

As Palmer continued to follow his nose, the other three ferrets followed their friend. The trail led outside the park to a street corner. They had transformed back into regular ferrets in order to avoid another incident like the one in the park.

While they walked, Dante and Sheila overheard a man speaking in a rather bored tone of voice nearby. "Yeah, Slade. Yeah, I'm out that way. I'll check on him for ya."

The pair stopped and pointedly exchanged glances. "Hear that?" Dante asked.

"Hear what?" Adagio glanced back over his shoulder at the both of them. Palmer, wondering why everyone had stopped following him, also padded over. Sheila pointed out a dark-featured man in a black jacket standing by one of those large four-wheeled machines that the ferrets noticed seemed to be very popular in this era and talking into some sort of handheld silver device (which was, unbeknownst to them, called a car and a cellular phone respectively).

"That guy just mentioned Slade."

"There is a chance that he could be talking about another Slade entirely and not the one we know." Palmer theorized.

"He could, but let's go check it out anyways just in case." Dante led the others to a trash receptacle near the man. Taking refuge behind it, they listened in some more on his conservation.

"Trust me, no one will find him. The cops are too stupid to check there." The man said reassuringly. After listening to Slade for several more minutes, the man finally hung up and put his phone away. "Man, for a little guy, dude's sure got a real rotten temper." He muttered as he made his way towards the car.

"All aboard gang!" Dante said, pointing to the car's bumper. Adagio gave Sheila a boost onto the bumper, then climbed up himself, while Palmer tried to mimic Adagio and attempted to scramble up by himself. However, the young hob lost his grip and fell, landing on his rump.

Grabbing Palmer by the scruff of his neck, Dante took a few steps back, readying himself, and then made a leap for the bumper. He succeeded in getting Palmer up, but it took Adagio and Sheila's aid in actually making it onto the bumper himself.

"How do you guys make it look so easy?" Palmer groaned as he rubbed his sore posterior.

Adagio gritted his teeth as the car started to lurch forward. "The things one does in the name of duty and friendship…"

"Feeling a little daunted, 'Dagie?" Dante couldn't help but grin at the other hob, who was looking rather uneasy. Adagio looked as if he was going to fire back with something nasty, but jumped at the sound of the engine backfiring and would've nearly fell off the bumper had it not been for Sheila. The ferrets clung on tightly as the car started down the street.

The vehicle took the four to a two-story house in a lower-class area of the city. Now they were inside, shadowing their unsuspecting prey as he walked through the hallway of the house's second story. Finally stopping outside a closed door at the end of the hall, the man removed a set of keys from his jacket pocket.

"Now!" Dante hissed. The quintet surged forward as one, shouting the words to the shape-shifting spell as they did so. The next thing Black Jacket knew, four frightening half-human half-animal creatures were assailing him.

With one hand, Dante roughly grabbed him by his jacket collar and shoved him against the wall. "We're going to say this one time and one time only – " he snarled in the man's face, " – if you vermin have so much as touched one hair on Tristan's head, we'll turn you into our own personal chew toy."

"Wha – how did you – "

"Know about Tristan? We have our ways." He emphasized the last four words as he shoved the terror-stricken man against the wall again and held his lethally sharp white claws to his throat. "Sheila, grab the keys."

"With pleasure," Sheila grimly said as she picked up the key chain the man had dropped in his fright and unlocked the door. The ferrets, with the exception of Dante (though he did turn to look), who was still restraining Black Jacket, crowded around the doorway as Sheila opened it in the anticipation of finally being reunited with Tristan.

An old toaster came flying out of the room and would have hit Palmer in the head had he not dodged out of the way in time. The ferrets instantly went into combat mode. They could now see an older-looking man, presumably the thrower of the toaster, standing inside the room from a few away from them, also poised for a fight.

"… Okay, you're not Tristan." Sheila said, still on guard just in case this stranger decided to try anything else funny.

"And you're not the police." Tao replied as he relaxed and looked them over. No longer sensing a threat from Tao, the ferrets began barraging him with questions, namely about who he was and where their boy was. Feeling overwhelmed, Tao held up his hands for silence. "First things first: my name is Tao Shang. As for your boy, I assume you mean Tristan, correct?"

Four furry heads nodded all at once.

"Well, from the way my captors have been talking, I take it he's still back at my place."

Dante had dropped Black Jacket when Tao tried to nail the others with the toaster, and wasn't paying any more attention to him. Now the man was trying to make a hasty escape while everybody was occupied. But before he could even reach the staircase, Sheila streaked towards and then around him before barreling into him like a bullet with her arm outstretched and hand balled into fist. The force of the attack knocked Black Jacket back and left him dazed and sprawled out on the floor. The entire thing had happened so fast that the others were still trying to register what had just occurred, even Tao. In response, the jill casually brushed her bangs from over her eyes and regarded Tao. "Just tell us where you live and we'll be on our merry little way."

"Uh… just what exactly will you do once you get there?"

"Save Tristan, of course." Dante said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Hmm… you know, seeing the four of you brings to mind something that my father once said -- 'a jadestone is useless before it is processed; a man is good for nothing until he is educated.' "

The ferrets exchanged glances among themselves, confused. Even Palmer looked lost for once. "Huh?"

"Wait – are you calling us good for nothing?" Sheila frowned.

"No, you misunderstand me." Tao tried to explain as he walked closer to the quartet. "I was merely saying that right now you're all pretty formidable. But with my help, you could become even more formidable then what you presently are; both in mind, body, and spirit. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

"What? What the fuzz does that even mean?" Adagio exclaimed as he threw his gloved hands into the air, growing frustrated by the old man's proverbs.

Tao's mouth creased into a slight smile. "I'll teach the four of you how to fight. Quite well, too."

"I don't know…" Dante said hesitantly. "Tristan might be in real danger."

"I'm quite sure he's still safe. I heard Slade and Gyles – er, the two goons who have the boy – "

"Oh, we've had the pleasure of meeting them." Sheila said sardonically.

"Sorry. I wasn't sure if you knew who they were. But I overheard them saying that they were only to hold him captive."

"Well, if we're to get any training done, then we'd better do it now." Dante said, still not quite at ease at the thought of Tristan being held in Slade and Gyle's unsavory clutches.

"Good. We'll go to my martial arts academy." Tao was already moving past them, towards the staircase. As the ferrets tagged after the elderly but atheletic man, Adagio said in an aside to his friends, "You know, _monsieur_ Shang is fast – for a human."


	9. Chapter 9

-1** Chapter 9**

** Queens, outside Tao's apartment building **

"This is it!" Palmer squeaked in excitement. He and the other three ferrets, all presently in their four-legged guises once again to avoid detection, stood on the sidewalk before Tao's apartment building.

It was dusk, and they had finished spending three days training in self-defense under Tao's guiding hand. True to his word, Tao had taught them the basics of martial arts, namely one of the styles that he used – _chin na_, a mixed style partially based on _karate_, _kempo_, and _shao lin kung fu_. He had even shown Dante how to wield his bo-staff more efficiently. Although not exactly experts, they were still better combatants then what they had been before meeting Tao. Now it was time to put what they had learned to use.

Sheila, Adagio, Dante, and Palmer stared up at the building entrance -- double doors with thick frosted plastic/glass windows. Behind them they could clearly make out the shape of a man standing as if on guard.

"Well, how do we get inside and remain undetected? There's no way that even we can slip past that thing, much less open it. Not unless we want Sticky there to raise the alarm." Sheila pointed out.

"Adagio, can't you make all of us invisible?" Dante asked.

Adagio shook his head. "I wish I could, but trying to make the three of you and myself invisible would quickly exhaust _moi_. Secondly, I'm not even sure if I can do something like that yet."

"Maybe we could wait until someone comes by and opens it?…" Palmer suggested weakly, trailing off as he did so. The ferrets realized that if they did wait, then there was no telling how long it would take until somebody actually went in or out of the apartment. And waiting was simply not an option; they wanted to get their owner out of this place now before anything _really_ bad occurred, but without sacrificing their stealth advantage at the same time. The three looked to Dante, who was deep in thought.

After a minute, he finally spoke. As much as he wanted to remain covert for as long as possible, this was a desperate time.

"Sheila, since you're the fastest, provide us with a quick distraction."

"Huh?"

Dante sat up on his haunches and began scratching frantically at the door. The man inside, hearing the noise, walked over just as the ferrets dove into the shrubbery growing around the entrance. Opening one of the doors, the man looked around to see what had been responsible for the strange sounds. Sheila took the opportunity to dash between the man's legs, brushing up against them for further effect before running inside the apartment building. The man looked down and rubbed his eyes in disbelief at what he assumed was a crazy albino squirrel on the loose.

As the man turned to deal with Sheila, Dante shouted, "Hurry and get inside, before the door closes!" The three hobs raced inside as fast as their short limbs could carry them. The door slamming shut behind them, Adagio, Dante, and Palmer now found themselves in the lobby. The man was further down the hallway, searching for Sheila. The trio took cover behind a potted plant, scanning the room for their friend all the while. Across the lobby, Sheila poked her head out from behind the trashcan she was using to hide.

"Phew. Certainly _smells_ like the middle ages here." She commented, giving a very un-lady-like snort at the offensive odors emanating from the trashcan's opening. "Come on boys, let's go." She ran for the staircase, closely tailed by Palmer, Dante, and Adagio.

"Well? Can we change back now?" An edgy Adagio asked as Palmer ran ahead of the group, sniffing everywhere. The apartment's second floor appeared to be completely clear of people, as the ferrets had seen neither hide nor hair of any humans yet, although they had heard a few sounds from behind well-locked doors in their respective rows up and down the hallways.

"I still think we should wait," Dante replied. Adagio decided to respect Dante's wishes, but growled deep within his throat. "Besides, being small does come in handy sometimes, believe it or not."

Adagio snorted as if to say, _"Yeah, right."_

"Pick up anything, _bambino_?" Dante called out to Palmer.

Palmer finally halted in front of one particular door on the right side of the hall, obviously excited. "This definitely has Tristan's scent all over it!"

Dante looked over at Adagio. "Okay, now Adagio..."

Adagio couldn't help but grin as he and the others recited the words to the shifting spell --_ "It's Ferreteer time_!"

"Ready to kick some evil tail." The now-humanimal Sheila growled as she cracked her knuckles and got into a battle stance.

"Well, let's not bother to knock then." Dante said, unsheathing his wickedly sharp claws and going to work on picking the lock with them. After a few seconds, the lock gave way, and the door swung open ever so slightly with only a small whine to protest at the intrusion. Pushing the door open further, Dante entered cautiously, flanked by Palmer and Sheila with their armaments at the ready and Adagio bringing up the rear.

As they softly tread through the sitting room of the barely-lit apartment, the ferrets noted that it apparently had been well kept once, but now resembled something out of an interior decorator's worst nightmare. There was a hallway in front of them, and a small kitchen to their left. Suddenly hearing the sound of crunching glass beneath his boot, Palmer looked down to see a shattered glass picture frame lying forlorn and forgotten on the floor. The picture was still in its' frame. Curious, Palmer picked it up and studied it. The interesting piece of parchment – unbeknown to the Furo-Sapien, called a photograph – featured a young Asian girl who looked to be around their own child's age and a man of the same race.

Sheila suddenly got Palmer's attention by touching his tail, causing him to turn to look at her. "Huh? -- "

She placed an index finger to her lips, signaling for him to be quiet. The ferrets froze, picking up the sounds of low growls and the claws of a big animal gently clacking on the hardwood floor. From their point of view, luminous green eyes came closer and closer down the dark hallway towards them. As they watched, the eyes revealed themselves to belong to a large dog. She stopped, watching the ferrets suspiciously.

"... Eep..." Adagio squeaked, his black-tipped tail bottle-brushing in fear.

Slowly stepping forward, Sheila hunkered down so that she was on the dog's eye level. "Shh… easy girl." The jill said soothingly, holding out a knuckle for the dog to sniff. As the dog did so, her growls subsided.

"Listen, could you do us a favor?" Sheila asked her. "We're looking for a human kit, a boy with blue eyes and dirty blond hair named Tristan. He's our pet. We've been told he's here."

The dog turned and headed back down the hall and into the room she had initially come from. Then, a bright beam of light suddenly focused on the four companions, temporarily blinding them. A small child holding a flashlight walked into view, the dog trailing behind him and occasionally using her head to gently nudge him forward. Despite the fact that his clothing was shabby, he looked relatively clean and healthy. Stopping dead in his tracks, the startled boy stared back at the ferrets. In instant recognition, Dante, Palmer, and Adagio swept their hats off to the boy as they each performed elegant bows, while Sheila curtsied.

"At your service, Prince Tristan!" the quartet of heroes cheerfully chirped in unison.

Stunned, Tristan could only blink. No one had addressed him as 'prince' in most of the two weeks he had been here. "Who... who are you?"

"I'd thought you'd recognize your four _paisanos _from Wicklow. Pal, 'Dagie, Sheila, and Danny," Dante said, gesturing to the others and then himself.

At that, Tristan quickly deduced the identities of his four rescuers. "But you guys used to be four lil' ferrets! Now you're huge! And you can talk!"

He ran to hug the nearest ferret, Sheila. Both the jill and the boy's eyes glistened with tears as they warmly embraced. Palmer and Adagio eagerly scampered over to Tristan and began licking their master's face like kits. Never one to hold in his emotions, Dante sniffed and wiped away a few tears at the scene.

"Well, some of us still aren't exactly huge." Sheila said after a few minutes, her voice hoarse. "_Dammit,_" She thought. "_I said I wasn't going to cry_..."

"_Oui_, and some of us do not exactly have... certain items." Adagio said, and both he and Palmer exploded into a fresh bout of laughter.

Sheila rolled her eyes skyward and shot the pair annoyed looks as she handed Tristan over to Dante.

"Okay, okay! I get the point, I _have_ breasts!" she fumed. "Thank you for reminding me constantly!"

This merely caused both hobs further merriment.

Tristan shot Dante a questioning look that only a seven-year could give. Modestly clearing his throat, Dante spoke. "As much as I'd love to give our little _bambino _herea lesson on anatomy, I think we should take our leave of this place."

"It was horrible here! All the people were really mean, and the only person I could talk to was Jess!" Tristan exclaimed, pointing to the dog. "Well, her and the T.V."

"T.V.?" Sheila asked, letting the strange word roll over her tongue.

"Yeah! It's a little box with people in it – "

Before he could further explain about television however, all six heard the front door being opened and then shut.

"Adagio, didn't you close the door?" Dante looked over at the other ferret.

"_Oui_."

"Yeah. He just forgot to lock it." intoned a sinister new voice. Slade, Gyles, and at least fourteen or more of their henchmen stood between the ferrets and their only exit aside from the windows and the balcony. The Wild Boys stared at the Furo-Sapiens.

One finally summed up the gang's thoughts on the unusual intruders with an elegant

"What the –?"

"Don't just stand there! Stop the beasties!" Slade interrupted as he tried to conceal himself further behind his gang, Gyles following suit.

Snapped out of their surprise by their leader's commands, the thugs either pulled out weapons that they already had on-hand or improvised and grabbed the nearest things that could be used as weapons. Dante, growling a warning, allowed Jess to take Tristan into the safety of the back bedroom as the henchmen approached the ferrets menacingly. Two started to encircle the tall ferret in a manner not unlike that of wolves sizing up potential prey. The shorter one swung a billy club at Dante's blind side. Smartly sidestepping, Dante heard the club whistling harmlessly through the air behind him. Whirling around, he popped his claws and swiped at the weapon, reducing it to shreds. Grabbing the men by their shirt collars before they could react in time, Dante smashed their heads together. Tossing them aside, he then leapt into the thick of the fray.

With a devil-may-care grin on her face, Sheila fought hit-and-run style. Despite the relatively small space she had to operate in, she was using her agility and speed to avoid tripping over things and to appear in the least likely spots among the henchmen and take them down using the skills she had studied under Tao. The gangsters tried to get at her, but so far, she was literally running circles around them.

"Stop all that _kung fu_ crap and fight fair!" One sporting a mohawk yelled in frustration before swearing and swinging at her with a fireplace poker. Quickly, she metamorphosed back into her normal form, the poker just barely missing her head. Racing behind the henchman, she bit him in the leg. As Mohawk grabbed his bitten leg and jumped up and down in pain, Sheila transformed back and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hello..." she purred slyly. As the man turned, she caught him with a right hook to the face. Mohawk stumbled back from the force of the punch, and then fell against an armchair, out cold.

Considering his normally timid attitude towards physical confrontation, Adagio was fairing well too, the fact that he was fighting for his master being a major factor in his sudden burst of bravery. He mostly employed his unarmed combat talents, since he didn't really have enough room to maneuver around with his long rapier, although he was learning that his dirk was perfect for this type of fighting. At the same time, he drew on his power of invisibility, disappearing whenever things got particularly hairy, then suddenly materializing in a different spot altogether to dish out more punishment to his enemies. He ran through the combat moves he had been taught in his head. Unfortunately, Adagio was so wrapped up in the heat of battle he failed to see one of his foes, Osa, rush up with a ceramic container he had snatched from Tao's kitchen. When Adagio's body began fading as he was about to vanish again, Osa opened the canister and flung the contents at the ferret, who, seeing the movement from the corner of his eye, instinctively jerked his arm up in an effort to protect himself.

Confused and coughing, Adagio found himself coated from head to toe with flour. The henchmen, sensing they had the advantage now, grinned ghoulishly and advanced on the humanimal. Adagio backed away, the look of confidence on his face now replaced by sheer panic.

"I am warning you _vermine_ – get away or feel the sting of _moi's_ blade!"

He yelped as he suddenly felt the solidness of the partition wall separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment behind him. Now he was cornered between a wall and uncertain bloody death. Or at least a really bad beating. He withdrew his dirk again as his the villains moved in for the kill.

"_Adagio_!" a voice suddenly bellowed. Adagio, who was now desperately trying to fight off a switchblade-wielding Osa and five other thugs, recognized it as Palmer's. Osa screamed as the long silver blade of a dirk suddenly ran him through from behind. Palmer merely stood there behind the man, who had fallen to the floor when Adagio pushed him off of him, looking stunned. Another man in a red shirt tackled Palmer from behind, and both fell to the ground. In the ensuing struggle, Red Shirt managed to get the upper hand and began delivering a series of brutal blows to Palmer's midsection and face. Snapping back to his senses, Adagio prepared to jump in when he suddenly noticed Sheila, who was standing further away from Palmer then he was, had her crossbow loaded and cranked to full tension. She fired, and as if by magic, the goose-feathered tip of the crossbow bolt seemed to suddenly sprout from the man's back. Red Shirt stood there for a second as if in a daze, then promptly fell on top of Palmer.

"You alright, Pal?" Sheila asked as she walked over to him, holstering her weapon into its case. Palmer shoved the man off him and sat up, rubbing his tender muzzle.

"Um... yeah, I think so."

"Get back here and fight, you cowards!" Slade snarled as he watched the few remaining henchmen retreat. By this time, most of the gangsters had either been dispatched one way or another or had fled.

"Aye, 'tis only a few animals!" Gyles joined in.

Watching Slade and Gyles, Sheila laughed as she approached them. "Aw, wooks wike all your playmates wan away! Too bad. You boys wanna join the fun?"

Recognition dawned like a bright Sunday morning on Gyles' homely face as he stared back at Sheila. "Hey! You're that weasel that bit me! And these other beasties are yer lil' pals!"

"Yes, you dumb vermin," Sheila smugly retorted. "And I'd do it again."

Gyles stalked heatedly towards the jill, but stopped short when Dante and Adagio stepped directly into his path, growling. "Your days are numbered, filth." Dante rumbled, anger in his eyes. "We're taking you back to where you belong – Castle Wicklow's dungeon."

"Who says?" Gyles snorted, still not wanting to admit defeat. A pair of silver rapier points and a crossbow was suddenly aimed at him.

"Damn…" He was finally ready to admit defeat.

"Well, come on, _paisanos_, let's get out of here." Dante said to his friends. Jess bounded out of the back bedroom, Tristan clutching onto her collar as he followed her and the other ferrets.

As the unusual-looking group marched out of the apartment and down the stairwell, the two whimpering henchmen in tow being guarded by Sheila, Dante started noticing how quiet Palmer was. He let Adagio take the lead and slipped further behind to walk next to Palmer, who was last in the procession.

"Something wrong, _bambino_?"

Palmer sighed, avoiding Dante's eyes. "I killed that man back there. I've never killed anything before, not even a rabbit or a rodent. Maybe a bug or two when I was little, but even that wasn't really on purpose."

Still keeping his voice low, the elder hob replied, "Look at it this way, Pal – that human was about to seriously injure Adagio, or even worse. You had no other choice. In situations like that, sometimes killing is something that you have to do to keep someone from hurting others."

"I guess." Palmer said, still sounding dejected. Dante squeezed Palmer's shoulder, trying to comfort his friend.

"You'll understand one day,_ paisan_."

As the heroes made their way back to Forest Park, Adagio sighed happily. Some small traces of flour were still noticeable on his person, but he had managed to brush most of it off with Tristan and Sheila's help. He was feeling practically invincible right now. He had his boy back, everyone was safe, the bad guys had been defeated, and that's all that mattered to the redhead.

"We kicked tail and took names back there, _mes amies_! _Vive le France_! Hmm… you know, since we are a team of fearless super warrior-knights now, I think we should have an official team name."

Sheila thoughtfully considered this. "You mean like the Knights Templar or something, 'Dagie?"

"_Oui, cherie_. We could be… the Wild Weasels!"

"No, you guys should be the Ferret Beatdown Squad!" Tristan eagerly interjected.

"Hold on, gang." Everyone stopped to look at Dante questioningly. "Something doesn't feel quite right…"

The ferrets listened intently, using their enhanced senses to pierce the night's dark shroud. Dante was right. The air had a bitter chill to it that hadn't been there before. It was incredibly quiet as well. Not even a cricket chirped. They had seen this before…

Immediately, Dante grew cautious. "_Paisans_, on-guard." The four, along with Jess, bunched around Tristan protectively. A strong wind began picking up, sending leaves and loose debris scurrying across the pavement just as an all-too familiar voice that dripped with menace and malice suddenly seemed to echo from all around them.

"Nice try, but you miserable creatures made one mistake: you should've killed me when you had the chance!"

As everybody looked around to see exactly where Morrigan's voice was issuing from, they looked up and finally saw her. Morrigan, with Rappleye perched in her usual position, levitated several feet in the air in front of them, an aura of deep gold light glowing brightly around her body. Gyles and Slade took advantage of the heroes' distraction and ran over to stand underneath their leader.

Slade waved up at her, overjoyed. "Lady Morrigan! We're so happy to see you again!"

"Aye! Give these fleabags what for!"

One look from her and the bird silenced them both. "Never send idiots in to do a capable woman's job." Morrigan shook her covered head in disgust. "I can't believe you let these… absurd creatures defeat you! But then again…"

While Morrigan was occupied with her disgraced toadies, Dante urgently whispered to his comrades, "Adagio, you know what to do. Everyone else, stay with me."

Adagio nodded seriously as he looked at Dante for what might possibly have been the last time. In turn, Dante smiled reassuringly at him. Granted, while hobs didn't always see eye-to-eye or even get along at times, each still thought of the other as a compatriot he would gladly fight alongside to the end. Picking Tristan up, Adagio willed his stealth power to work on them with all his might. Both he and the prince vanished from sight.

"After I kill all of you, I'll see to it the boy never makes it back to Wicklow – one way or another!" sneered Morrigan, her attention now focused on her opponents again. "So, how do you want to die?"

"How about not, Lady Nutbag?" Palmer defiantly heckled her.

Like chess players, each side awaited the others' move. This time, Morrigan didn't blow up at the insult, but simply smirked and set her goshawk into the air. As the ferrets stared up at the falcon, she seemed to suddenly blaze with a yellow light and grow larger. Her body began changing shape: two separate rough-furred limbs shot out from each side of her chest. A long tufted tail snaked out from behind the bird. As the dazzling flare disappeared from around the creature and she hovered in the air for a moment, flapping her now-enormous wings and glaring ferociously down at the friends, the ferrets suddenly recognized what Rappleye had become: a reputedly fearsome creature that was often depicted on medieval tapestries and coats-of-arms. A monster straight from legend.

Sheila stared, taken aback by the falcon's transformation. "Whoa. New trick."

"_Checkmate_." Morrigan and her henchmen smiled at them. The players were now in place, and the last battle began.

The gryphon dove straight at the three ferrets and Jess, who scattered to either side of the street to avoid her racking talons and beak.

"How in the fuzz do we fight that thing?" shouted Sheila, who had gone into a roll and quickly came to her feet by a lone tree on the right side of the street.

"We need to immobilize her somehow!" Dante responded, running behind a car with Jess at his heels. "Distract her!"

As the monster landed, lithe tail whipping back and forth, Palmer suddenly ran out in front of her, waving his arms. He observed that on the ground, Rappleye looked even larger then she had when airborne, around the size of a horse. "_I hope she doesn't eat me_…"

"Hey, birdbrain! Remember me? You're still pretty ugly – that spell didn't do much for your looks!"

The gryphon's mane ruffled in fury, and she charged at the young hob. Palmer hastily switched into regular ferret mode and zipped between the creature's legs and behind her. As Rappleye glanced between her legs back at her prey, whose tail was now just disappearing beneath a mailbox, a snow-white streak suddenly raced by and smacked her across the face, the speed at which the blow came and the force behind it causing Rappleye's head to whip back. The white flash, Sheila, leapt up onto Rappleye's back and came to rest there, her knees digging firmly into the feathery neck so she wouldn't loose her grip and slip off. As Sheila covered Rappleye's eyes with her gloved hands, she leaned down to jeer, "Hey, guess who, featherbag!" Non-too-gently, she spurred her strange mount in the side with her boot heels. "Ye-haw!"

Rappleye roared in rage and, just like an angry bronco, began bucking up and down, dancing wildly all over the street. Sheila just clung tighter, like she had when she was chewing on Gyle's ear earlier.

Finally, she leapt off, taking care to plant her boots extra hard on the gryphon's beak as she did so, and landed in a crouching position before Rappleye. Dizzy from having her beak used as an impromptu diving board, Rappleye shook her head and staggered around on unsteady legs. Spotting Sheila, she quickly came to and barreled straight for her. Sheila waited until the gryphon was almost on her, and then easily darted around her. Rappleye suddenly crashed into something very solid – and _very_ unmovable.

Dante glared at the confused gryphon as he planted a fist straight into the creature's face, sending her flying clear across the street and into the side of a parked car. As Rappleye slumped forward and fell to the ground, the spectators could see the extensive damage left by the force of Rappleye's impact into the side of what used to be a fully functional automobile.

From the sidelines, Sheila enthusiastically voiced her approval of Dante's moves. "Nice one, Danny – whoa!" The ferret barely had time to move as her senses warned her of the mystical energy bolt aimed for the spot where she had been standing only seconds before. Luckily, Sheila managed to evade the blast, but the resulting explosion from it striking the street still sent her flying into the air and roughly landing a few feet away. As Palmer, now back in humanimal form, ran to help his comrade, Lady Morrigan took aim again and recited the spell words. Palmer yelped as he was forced to avert his intended path to dodge another energy bolt. As he crouched behind a trashcan, Palmer thoughtfully eyed the enraged witch, who was busy preparing another attack, her hands and eyes blazing with a gold aura, and then looked back at his temporary shelter.

Meanwhile, Rappleye had recovered, and the battle of the titans commenced once more. This time, Rappleye used flight to get the drop on her foe. Swinging a wickedly clawed forepaw, she slashed Dante squarely across the chest. Dante went stumbling to the side, a furrow of gouged concrete and dirt marking the ground where he had been forced back. Any normal person would have had severe gashes from the gryphon's talons and a crushed ribcage to boot, but Dante merely looked angry as he stared down at his tabard. There were four big claw marks spread evenly across the blue material, and his tunic was ripped, exposing the white fur on his abdomen underneath, but there were no signs of any blood whatsoever.

"You just ripped my outfit! Oh, now you'll _really_ pay for that, freak show." Dante lunged right at his adversary and grabbed Rappleye's tail. Rappleye reacted by clamping down on Dante's right arm with her beak, but Dante just growled and lashed out with his free fist, hitting the gryphon in the face again and forcing her to release his grip on his arm. Dante quickly got a better grip on the gryphon's tail and began to swing the beast around in a wide arc. As Rappleye was being spun around faster and faster, her body built up more momentum. Dante finally let go, sending the screeching beast flying down the street – and right into Slade and Gyles. Dante shielded his eyes and gritted his teeth as he heard plenty of expletives, loud crashes, and screams. After the cacophony had ceased, Dante peeked tentatively from underneath his arm and saw Rappleye lying akimbo on top of the groaning henchmen.

"Hey, I got two birds with one gryphon." Dante joked as he dusted his hands together in a business-like manner. He started looking around for his fellow ferrets. "You guys alright?"

"I'm not the one who just got crushed by a gryphon." Sheila said as she ran up to Dante. Palmer came out of hiding and reverted back into his humanimal form.

As they started to congratulate one other, Morrigan's cry of rage made them all jump and look up. "Meddling rodents! I'll fix you all once and for all!" As she started to chant a new mantra, her hands took on a gold-and-black aura.

"Sheila – _catch_!" Snatching the lid off the nearby trashcan, Palmer flung it to Sheila like a Frisbee. As she caught it, she understood what Palmer was up to. The jill was off like a shot from a gun. As she zipped in front of Dante, wielding the lid like a shield, Morrigan pointed at right them, unleashing her hex. The energy bolt ricocheted off the trashcan cover and right back at Morrigan, who was too surprised to react fast enough. Everyone shielded their eyes as a brilliant white light flared up from the spot. When the light had gone, everyone looked around. A pile of black clothing laying on the street – a hooded robe, a gauntlet, and boots – were all that remained of the dreaded witch.

Or so it seemed. A large black rat suddenly sprang up from the heap of clothing, and, furtively glancing around, prepared to make a dash for it when an upturned trashcan levitated right over the rat and dropped down on it, effectively imprisoning the rodent inside. As the rest of his body wavered back into sight next to the trashcan, Adagio smiled at his friends and gave them a thumbs-up. Next to him, Tristan also came into sight again. "Good job, _mon amies_. So now what?"

Dante exchanged glances with his teammates, and then a final one with Tristan. "After we take care of these clowns up and get something a little easier to contain You-Know-Who in --" He jerked his head in the beaten henchmen and then the ensorcelled mage's directions -- "time for our little _bambino_ here to finally go home."

"Home? So I get to see momma and poppa again? Alright!" Tristan happily pumped his fists into the air.

"Oh. Yeah… home." Palmer's voice trailed off as he grew disheartened again, but this time the young hob was sad for an entirely different reason. Adagio and Sheila also became somber, their faces drawn and tabards flapping in the slight night breeze.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

** Forest Park, New York City **

The five companions all stood in a haphazard circle. A heartbroken Tristan embraced each of his friends, as well as his newest one, Jess, in turn. Sitting on the ground nearby was a small wire birdcage, which held a certain black rat, her tail draped between the bars and slowly twitching back and forth in ire. Before they had left for New York City, Eldon had told the four rescuers to bring the prince back to the exact location where the time-gateway had originally dropped the ferrets off, and Eldon's friends – two other magi who had been rallied by Eldon and Pyewicket after the pair escaped the dungeon when Dante busted everyone out – would do the rest.

"But I don't want to leave you guys here…" Tristan sobbed as Jess tenderly licked his check, her stubby tail wagging furiously.

Dante gently shushed him. "I know, I know… But we'll be all right. Really we will."

"You must return to Wicklow and take your rightful place as prince,_ moi fils_." Adagio added, his voice breaking slightly as he affectionately ruffled Tristan's hair.

"Adagio and Dante are right. Remember this – we'll always be together in our hearts." Palmer said as he got in an extra hug. "Now, be sure to say hito everyone back in Wicklow for us."

"Don't forget to practice your digging!" Sheila reminded the young prince.

"And if they ever want you to take a bath – hide. Anywhere. Baths are totally uncool." Palmer said, shuddering as he recalled his own impromptu one at the hands – or rather, talons of Rappleye.

"Be sure to eat all your food at dinnertime, especially your conies." Dante added in a fatherly manner.

"Most importantly, make sure that you always look your finest. After all, first impressions are always the most important ones. I find that approximately a hundred brushstrokes a day always keeps _moi_'s fur looking well-groomed and shiny." Adagio finished, rubbing one hand across his bangs to emphasis his words. Both Dante and Sheila couldn't help but roll their eyes a little at that.

A sound reminiscent of the approaching rumbles and grumbles of a thunderstorm made the six look around. Seeing nothing, they continued looking around for the source of the noise, mystified. Then, out of the blue, what could best be described as a beam of bright green light started snaking its' way through the grass like a serpent, close by where the friends were standing. Another green light shaft appeared, and together, both lines traced the outline of a circle. Beads of intense green light sprayed up into the air like water from a fountain, eventually forming into the shape of a large cage. The cage suddenly dissipated until only the glowing circle remained. Two people now stood before them. One was a redheaded man who looked to be somewhere in his twenties or possibly early thirties. The other was an older, severe-looking woman whose brown hair was streaked with gray. Both were dressed discreetly in browns and greens, but didn't exactly look like peasantry either.

The woman spoke first. "Prince Tristan? I am Juliana Payne, and this is Aubrey DuBec." The male mage performed an elaborate bow. "We are loyal to your father the king."

"And you four must be the lad's oh-so-bold ferrets." Aubrey said as he looked them over. "Tell me, is it true that you ran around the castle searching for Eldon?"

"_Oui, monsieur_. It was my idea – " Adagio started to say, but grinned sheepishly at Sheila when she grabbed his tail and shook her head. "Er, I mean, it was Dante's idea."

"What he said." Dante chuckled. "But ultimately, it was teamwork that won the day."

"What's gonna happen to Morrigan?" Palmer asked.

Juliana pursed her lips as her hazel eyes came to settle on the cage containing rat-Morrigan. "Morrigan will be dealt with accordingly by both we the wizard's council and the royal court." She then turned back to the ferrets. "I suspect that The Council may have some further dealings with the four of you in the future." She said, and allowed herself a brief smile while the ferrets exchanged puzzled glances. "Anyways, everyone back in Wicklow wishes you luck, including Sir Eldon."

"You know, as much as I'd like to stay here for awhile – I am curious to see what type of transportation they employ in the future – we cannot maintain this spell any longer. Plus, we might start attracting unwanted attention." Aubrey said with a quick apologetic look in Tristan's direction.

"Hmm. Your comments are noted, Aubrey," Juliana nodded in agreement. "Tristan, have you already said your farewells?"

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded. As the prince stepped into the circle with the two magi, birdcage in hand, the green-colored arcane cage materialized around the small group. In another shower of green light, they vanished into thin air.

"Friends of yours'?"

The heroes turned to see Tao approaching them.

"Yeah." Dante smiled. Barking wildly, Jess raced over to her master and jumped up on him, her paws resting on his shoulders. She frantically licked at his face, whimpering an excited greeting all the while. Tao laughed as he rubbed the dog's head. "Yes, I missed you too, Jess."

Sheila glanced around the park. "Well, now what?"

Dante went to stand next to Sheila, placing a hand on her shoulder as she stared out into the night. "We start over, _paisan_. Think about it. We could use being here to our advantage – "

"Advantage? What advantage? So instead of being stepped on by livestock we now have those… shiny wheeled things to run us down instead?" sneered Adagio. The harshness in his voice surprised even Palmer and Sheila, causing them to look in his direction. Adagio didn't meet their eyes, but had his back turned to everyone instead.

"You can start over. With my help." Everyone looked at Tao, even the embittered Adagio.

"What?"

"Look, you four need a guide to help you learn your way around, right? After all, New York City isn't exactly a small town kind of place – not like where you're from. Then you need lodging, food, and someone to continue teaching you in the martial arts and making sure that you use your powers and abilities for good and not ill gain," Here his eyes lingered on Adagio, whose fur bristled.

"And just what exactly are you implying, _monsieur_?"

Tao held up one worn hand to placate the defensive hob. "I didn't mean you in particular, Adagio; I meant the four of you in general. So, what do you all say?"

Sheila nodded seriously. "He's got a point, boys."

"Especially about the food…" Dante murmured thoughtfully.

"Oh, alright." Adagio huffed.

Smiling, Palmer walked over to his mentor and placed an arm around the other ferret's shoulders. "_Tabula rasa_, 'Dagie."

"Taba-what?"

"It means clean slate." Tao cleared it up for him.

"Speaking of clean slate, check out our uniforms!" Sheila exclaimed. The humanimals stared at their outfits. Every rip, tear, and even dirt smudge had vanished, and the uniforms looked like they had never been worn before. Even the gashes on Dante's tabard and tunic where the gryphon had clawed him had repaired themselves.

"Sir Eldon's enchantment must extend to our regalia as well. That's why they're self-restoring." Palmer reasoned, slipping back into his wordier style of speech that now came and went randomly.

"Most amazing…" Tao commented as he took in the ferrets' attire for himself. He then beamed brightly at his four newest students. "Well, shall we take our leave of this place and go home?"

Dante smiled back. "Lead the way, _capo_."

**The End**

**A dictionary for the French and Italian words and terms used (mainly) by Adagio and Dante respectively:**

**French words:**

_Adieu_: French for "goodbye".

_Au revoir_: Also French for either "goodbye" or "farewell".

_Cherie_: Can translate into several French terms of affection, but when Adagio uses it he typically means either "sweetheart" or "dear".

_Copain_: Basically, French for "buddy".

_Instituteur_: French for "teacher".

_Mademoiselle_: French for "Miss".

_Mes amie(s_)/_Mon amie(s):_ French for "my friend(s)/buddies/etc.".

_Moi_: French for "me".

_Moi fils_: French "my boy".

_Mon dieu_: French for "My God!" or "My goodness!"

_Monsieur_: French for "mister" or "sir".

_Oiseau_: French for "bird".

_Oui_: French for "yes".

_Sacre bleu_: The French equivalent of "Oh my gosh!" or something similar. It's a very old-fashioned oath.

_Toutou_: French for "doggie".

_Vermine_: French for "vermin".

_Vil_: French for "foul".

_Vive le France_: "Long live France!"

**Italian words:**

_Bambino_: Italian for "boy" or "kid".

_Capo_: Italian for "boss".

_Ciao_: Italian for either "hello" or "goodbye".

_Grazie_: Italian for "thank you".

_Paisano/Paisan_: Italian for "friend".

_Signora_: Italian for "lady/Madame/Miss".

_Signore_: Italian for "sir".

_Sorella_: Italian for "sister".

_Strega_: Italian for "witch".

**The Ferreteer concept belongs to Little Paw Publishing, but Tao's Ferreteers and Dante, Sheila, Adagio, Palmer, Tao, Jess, Lady Morrigan, Camlann, and the rest of the cast in here are © to **_**moi**_**.**

**The Kingpin is the creation of Marvel comics.**

**Road Rovers is owned by Warner Bros., of course.**

**Coming next: "Four's A Crowd": **The follow-up to "Into The Spotlight"! When the senior Ferreteers decide that Palmer is too young to be out in the field with them, an outraged Palmer quits the team, and meets some new friends in the process. But with a dangerous new enemy with a surprising connection to an old foe is on the loose, will Palmer help his old comrades, or his new ones?


End file.
